Oxygen available but Covid patients gasp for breath in absence of empty cylinders
Wednesday, 28 April 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Sixty-seven year old Manmohan Sachdeva broke down in tears as he narrated to The Pioneer on Tuesday, the ordeal the family went through searching desperately for an oxygen equipped bed or an oxygen cylinder for his Covid-positive daughter-in-law. “Last week, on the third day of fever, around 1 AM at home her blood oxygen level dipped to 80 per cent and she began gasping for breath. The doctor told us to get her admitted to an oxygen-equipped Covid hospital immediately. In a state of panic we put her in our car. And what followed was the worst nightmare of our life. We rushed from one hospital to another desperately but were refused as there were no oxygen equipped beds available as my daughter-in-law lay on the verge of collapsing.
After many hours of a desperate search, we found a bed at a private hospital. But I have been searching frantically for more than two days now for an oxygen cylinder or concentrator for her as she is still not out of danger. My 90-year old mother also needs oxygen and even my Covid-positive son is in a bad state. Today, I am also showing Covid symptoms and feeling breathless. But I have been struggling to get an empty cylinder as there is oxygen available for refill but a severe shortage of oxygen cylinders.” Similar has been the ordeal of Vishal Gupta who could not, till the time of filing this report, arrange an oxygen cylinder for her critical Covid-positive mother. “Suppliers have oxygen but there are no cylinders and flow meters. My father is in the ICU. My mother needs oxygen urgently. I am extremely worried.” Social media is flooded with distress messages asking for empty cylinders in the State capital.
In Dehradun, the crippling crisis is reportedly not of shortage of medical oxygen but that of empty cylinders and flow meters. To illustrate, Uttarakhand Punjabi Mahasabha started a helpline for providing oxygen free of cost in Dehradun five days ago. In the beginning they got about one call every five minutes on each helpline number, but for the last three days their 10 helpline numbers have not stopped ringing. While they have medical oxygen to meet the demand there are no empty cylinders and flow meters. Multiple calls by this correspondent to Uttarakhand’s Director General, Health, Dr Tripti Bahuguna, to get her response went unanswered.
“There is an emergency need to ramp up the production of oxygen cylinders and the government should support cylinder manufacturers. We have procured oxygen supplies but we are not able to utilise this. We have contacted suppliers as far as Noida, be it Rishikesh, Saharanpur, Roorkee, Haridwar, there are just no stocks of cylinders and flow meters currently. Dehradun alone requires a bare minimum of 5,000 oxygen cylinders with flow meters immediately. The situation has gotten really out of hand,” said Rajeev Sachar who is spearheading this initiative for the organisation.
The same response was received from other oxygen suppliers/ distributors in Dehradun– adequate stock of medical oxygen but no cylinders to fill. Bharat Gas’ executive said, “We are getting calls all day and night. People are crying frantically as their family members are dying but we are helpless. We are refilling cylinders but do not have any empty cylinders. It has been like this for the last 4-5 days. Till now, we do not know when this acute shortage will be resolved.”
Reportedly, there are delays in import of oxygen concentrators and costing around Rs 50,000 for the smaller five litre version, these are too expensive for many to afford. In this severe crisis, many households are hoarding oxygen concentrators and cylinders, worsening the shortage. “Many families have taken oxygen concentrators and cylinders on rent even though no one in their home requires it right now. Every day I am trying to convince them to return these for critical patients but some people are hoarding to safeguard their own family. The government should reduce hoarding by putting checks like making it mandatory to get a doctor’s letter endorsing the patient’s requirement of oxygen support and monitoring that oxygen suppliers follow this strictly,” said Saurabh, Dehradun based oxygen concentrators and cylinder supplier.
