Bengaluru: As beds turn scarce, NGOs chip in with free oxygen cylinders

The wife of a 48-year-old Covid patient had procured four oxygen cylinders before her husband passed away on Tuesday after failing to get a hospital bed for three days.

She is one among the 200 caregivers of Covid suspects or Covid positive patients who have procured an oxygen cylinder from voluntary groups for their family members because they are unable to procure a bed in any of the city's hospitals. Despite the state's assurances that all is well, even to the central team that visited the city on Tuesday, this is how much the crisis has exacerbated in the capital.

The basement of a building in South End Circle, has in the past four days seen around 200 patient families take oxygen cylinders for their loved ones. When DH visited the place on Tuesday, distraught patients were seen lining up who had exhausted all efforts to get a hospital bed.

Each oxygen cylinder is being given free of cost to patient families with a total refundable deposit of Rs. 5,000 although it costs Rs. 9,000 and more. Volunteer Syed Tousif Masood working with Mercy Mission, a coalition of 25 NGOs, says the CMA Mercy Oxygen Centre set up in Jayanagar 2nd block, has been providing oxygen cylinders and
concentrators for four days now and they're already out of 200 cylinders.

Along with the cylinder, they're given an oxygen face mask with a long multi-channel tube for the patient with instructions on how to fill the humidifier bottle, read the rotameter, and operate the adjustment valve. Arbaaz is being instructed on how to refill the humidifier as he bundles a cylinder for his father in the back of his car.

26-year-old Shabeer Sheikh, after visiting many private and government hospitals for a bed finally got a consultation at Jayadeva hospital's OPD. He flips through his 49-year-old father Sheikh Munawar's hospital records to show his OPD note. The government heart hospital's OPD opened after a long closure on Monday after its staff tested positive.

"We can't get an admission at Jayadeva. But we got an OPD consultation. Now, we have come here for an oxygen cylinder as he is breathless," Shabeer said.

Information on Cylinders

* The cylinder last the patients, depending on the usage, between three hours and a day
* The refill costs Rs. 500
* Normal pulse oximeter readings (oxygen levels) usually range from 95 to 100 percent. Values under 90 percent are considered low
* Oxygen speed to be administered is prescribed by a clinician
* Standard oxygen sources can deliver from half litre per minute to five liters/minute. Every liter/minute of oxygen increases the percentage of oxygen the patient breathes by 3 to 4%
* The volunteers are currently procuring medical oxygen cylinders from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat as they're finding it difficult to procure them in the city
* The medical oxygen cylinders the volunteers procured are in two sizes -- 2,000 litres and a jumbo cylinder of 4,000 litres capacity

Where to get cylinders

CMA Mercy Oxygen Centre: 080-47191133
Naasih Public School: 080-25483641 (Behind HSIS Mosque, Fraser Town)
Oxyhelp: 994500113 (JC Nagar, initiative of Crisis Management Group)