Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Oct 22: Till recently, the district was facing the shortage of artificial oxygen cylinders needed to treat coronavirus infected patients in the hospitals. The shortage has been addressed, and a 6,000-litre capacity liquid oxygen plant has been installed in the premises of the district government hospital here.

This plant has been erected at a cost of Rs 50 lac. This plant can hold oxygen that is enough to fill 660 jumbo cylinders. With this, the shortage of oxygen the hospitals were facing, has been addressed, said district surgeon, Dr Madhusudan Nayak.

Before the onset of COVID-19, the district hospital used to consume only 10 to 15 oxygen cylinders every day. After the coronavirus infection spread, the demand for oxygen suddenly went up as breathing complications aggravated. Then 30 to 40 cylinders were needed per day. It was very hard to put together the oxygen cylinders needed. But now this problem is no more existent, he stated.

"Oxygen in liquid form is brought from Ballari and stored in the plant. In the past, the nurses were required to replace cylinders immediately after they became empty. But this problem has been solved as oxygen in the form of gas directly is supplied through pipes to the hospital beds. This system is more convenient for the patients," Nayak stated.

He said that when there was a shortage of oxygen cylinders in the state to treat the infected people, the government had ordered to set up oxygen plants in all the district hospitals. This has been done and the facility helps in saving the lives of coronavirus patients who develop breathing complications, he explained.