**Exhibit 31**

**CERTIFICATIONS**

I, Charles French, certify that:

1.          I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Hudson Respiratory Care Inc.;

2.          Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state amaterial fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by this report;

3.          Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included in this quarterly report,fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;

4.          The registrant’s other certifying officers and I are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosurecontrols and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrant and we have:

a.           designed such disclosure controls and procedures to ensure that materialinformation relating to the registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in which this quarterly report is being prepared;

b.          designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internalcontrol over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generalaccounting principles;

c.           evaluated the effectiveness ofthe registrant’s disclosure controls and procedures as of a date within 90 days prior to the filing date of this quarterly report (the “Evaluation Date”); and

d.          presented in this quarterly report our conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and proceduresbased on our evaluation as of the Evaluation Date;

5.          Theregistrant’s other certifying officers and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee of registrant’s board of directors (or persons performing the equivalentfunction):

a.           all significant deficiencies in the designor operation of internal controls which could adversely affect the registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and report financial data and have identified for the registrant’s auditors any material weaknesses in internal controls;and

b.          any fraud, whether or not material, that involvesmanagement or other employees who have a significant role in the registrant’s internal controls; and

6.          The registrant’s other certifying officers and I have indicated in this quarterly report whether or not there were significant changes in internal controlsor in other factors that could significantly affect internal controls subsequent to the date of our most recent evaluation, including any corrective actions with regard to significant deficiencies and material weaknesses.

 

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|----------------------|--------|--------|-------------------------------------------------------------|
| Date: August 8, 2003 |   |   | /s/ CHARLES FRENCH                                          |
|                 |   |   |                                                             |
|                 |   |   | **Charles French****Chief Executive Officer and President** |