Amid the rising demand for oxygen therapy for Covid-19, the Tata Memorial Hospital in collaboration with the Indian American Philanthropist has received as many as 3,800 oxygen concentrators which will be distributed to hospitals in 25 states across the country. The Director of the Tata hospital said these are the third and fourth shipments that Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) has brought in over the past two weeks.
“We have the singular focus of getting these units to the hospitals throughout India so that many can breathe well,” said Dr Rajendra Badwe, Director of TMC.
The chartered flight carried in 3,400 portable oxygen concentrators along with 300,000 N95 masks landed in Mumbai on Sunday. A few hours later, an Air India passenger plane landed in Delhi with an additional 400 concentrators. A FedEx 777 cargo plane landed in Mumbai on Sunday morning with 81,000 kg of medical equipment for Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) and its associated hospitals for distribution across India.
Tata Memorial Hospital, ACTREC, KEM Hospital, BARC Hospital, Sion Hospital, Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals, CIDCO Covid facility, Sub District Hospital Panvel, Panvel, Covid Hospital, Kalamboli, Pramod Mahajan Covid hospital, Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation, INHS Asvini, Kailash Kher Foundation, Giving Back, will be a few of the beneficiaries of the oxygen concentrators from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
“We are collecting requests for equipment and consumables from hospitals across the NCG, and mapping the current incidence of Covid-19 infections to determine where the greatest needs are and prioritizing government and charitable organizations to finalize the allocation [of oxygen concentrators],” said Dr CS Pramesh, Director of Tata Memorial Hospital.
This disbursement will be sent onwards to NCG centres in Maharashtra, New Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan, Kerala, amongst others.
As soon as the second wave hit, TMC’s team of experts drew on this experience to identify lightweight, portable, high-flow oxygen concentrators that would have the maximum impact in saving lives, especially in hospitals that don’t have oxygen pipelines.
Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, the Deputy Director of Epidemiology and who was looking after the NSCI centre, explains that the second wave of the pandemic seems to be related to a new variant that is affecting the lungs of young people, leading to a sharp rise in death among that population. “One of the important factors leading to mortality is the lack of ICU beds, lifesaving drugs, and oxygen. Portable oxygen concentrators help decongest ICUs and oxygen beds for truly needy patients by offering home support for patients with mild illness, allowing recovering patients to continue care at home, and supporting patients that are waiting hours or days for a hospital bed,” he said.
