On May 10, 2020, we admitted the first patient with Covid19 to our hospital. We did speedily ramp up critical care, to provide oxygenated hospital beds, ICUs, medicines, and ventilators, gloves, N95 masks, PPEs, and back up supplies.
Oxygen. Perhaps for the first time we realised how important was Oxygen, the sole therapy for managing COVID-19-induced hypoxaemia. Demand for high-flow oxygen had shot through the roof after the pandemic and exceeded the immediate availability. The hospital was completely swamped and overwhelmed. The task was to overall maintain a surplus of oxygen.
Most of the Covid beds – including the 30 in critical care – needed piped oxygen supply. Over the next few weeks, our hospital spent Rs 32 lakhs to connect a bank of cylinders to the new beds using copper pipes.
“It was a huge challenge,” I told Soutik Biswas, the BBC correspondent. “Ideally you’d need to plan and execute well ahead to create additional beds with access to piped oxygen. Oxygen is the key to survival for coronavirus patients.”