London, Apr 23 (IANS): An old ventilator of late British theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking has been donated to the National Health Service (NHS) to help coronavirus patients at the same hospital that treated him, a media report said.

The physicist's old ventilator was checked over by the clinical engineering team at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge before being added to its fleet, said the Metro newspaper report on Wednesday.

His daughter, Lucy Hawking said her father, who died in 2018, received "brilliant" and "compassionate" care at the hospital, and she urged everyone do their bit to help the NHS.

"As a ventilated patient, Royal Papworth was incredibly important to my father and helped him through some very difficult times.

"We realised that it would be at the forefront of the COVID-19 epidemic and got in touch with some of our old friends there to ask if we could help.

"After our father passed away, we returned all the medical equipment he used that belonged to the NHS but there were some items which he bought for himself," she was quoted in the newspaper report as saying.

Luck Hawking further said: "We are now passing them to the NHS in the hope they will help in the fight against COVID-19."

The Royal Papworth Hospital has expanded its critical care department to more than double its usual size due to the increasing number of coronavirus admissions.

The development comes as the UK has reported 134,638 coronavirus cases, with 18,100 deaths.