A problem peculiar to monsoon is troubling post-COVID patients who need oxygen support at home — oxygen concentrators are not working during power fluctuations or outages. The kin of patients in and around Hyderabad who faced the trouble at ungodly hours had no option but to seek hospital admission or send out SOS to voluntary organisations requesting for oxygen cylinder.
Since it has been raining intermittently from the past few days, people in some localities of the city have complained of frequent power fluctuation or outage.
Even after recovering from COVID, some of the patients need oxygen supply while at home. Some of the post-COVID patients have taken the concentrators on rent. However, these devices are not working when there is disruption of power. “Only people from an affluent background can afford power backup at home,” said Sai Teja Katragadda, member of Feed The Needy, an NGO.
In such distressing situations, people have been requesting oxygen cylinders from OxyCare Centre, a voluntary initiative of Society for Cyberabad Security Council (SCSC) and Cyberabad Police. The service is provided free of charge.
“The number of such distress calls in the night or midnight have increased in the past two to three days. So much so that we are getting calls when we are on the job of delivering oxygen cylinder to one patient. Now, we stock two to three cylinders in our vehicle whenever we step out to attend a distress call,” said Chinnam Rajashekar, in-charge of the Oxycare Centre. People can reach out to the centre at 080-45811138, or call 9493678136.
A few patients who were in such situations have got admitted at government hospitals.
“It is better if post-COVID patients or other patients with lung issues who are on oxygen support at home have a small oxygen cylinder as backup. The cylinder will offer support until the patient is shifted to a hospital or gets some other form of help,” suggested M. Narender, Professor of Pulmonology at Government General and Chest Hospital.
Member of Helping Hand Foundation, Mujtaba Hasan Askari said that patients, other than post-COVID ones, who need oxygen support at home have power inverters or oxygen cylinders as backup. “But not all can afford such options. Post-COVID patients or others in distress in need of oxygen can get admitted at our free of charge centre at Masjid Muhammadi in Rajendranagar,” he added.
Besides, people in distress can admitted at government hospitals such as District Hospital in King Koti or the Government General and Chest Hospital in Erragadda.
Published - July 22, 2021 12:02 am IST
