New low of selfishness: Recovered patients not returning oxygen equipment they received from NGOs

New low of selfishness: Recovered patients not returning oxygen equipment they received from NGOs

Srinagar: Patients who have recovered from Covid, many of them with the help of NGOs, are hoarding oxygen and other medical equipment at their homes, sparing not even a thought for critical patients who desperately need such life support at a time when it is difficult to find. Several Non Government Organisations (NGOs) based in Kashmir have been at the forefront of helping Covid-19 critical patients with oxygen cylinders, concentrators and oxymeters. But, to their utter shock, a large number of patients after recovering are still holding on to such equipment, unnecessarily, at their homes.
Kashmir valley is battling the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic with hundreds of patients, both elderly and young, hospitalised after reporting breathlessness and dip in oxygen saturation levels. Oxygen support for such patients has become life-saving at this time.
The demand for oxygen has shot up drastically over the past few weeks, with families of such patients making frantic calls and requests on social media platforms for help. While some families manage to buy and get oxygen cylinders and concentrators in the market, other families, especially the poor ones, are unable to buy and as such, are left to take help from NGOs.
Hundreds of such patients in different parts of Kashmir have received help from NGOs in the form of oxygen cylinders, concentrators and oxymeters. But, after taking help, the families of such patients don’t bother to return the equipment.
“Till now, over the past month, we have given out more than 300 oxygen cylinders and concentrators but received back only 60-70 cylinders. This has left us in a very difficult and challenging situation. We regularly receive hundreds of calls from patients in need but what can we do in this helplessness? Only today we retrieved an oxygen concentrator from a patient’s family who’d left that in the attic of their home and forgot to return back,” Bashir Ahmad Nadvi, Chairman of Athrout, told Kashmir Reader.
He said that largely the equipment remained withheld by the patients without any need and requirement. “Some people return them back, but a big number of patients don’t. On an average, out of 10 equipment, only 3 are being returned. Every patient needs oxygen support for a maximum of 15-20 days but we have found patients who have exceeded the limit long back,’’ Nadvi added.
“This is our hand-folded request to all such people, to please return the equipment back on time. If your life has been saved, you can save the life of others too. We need to think of others who are in desperate and dire need of them. Please let others survive,” he said.
To recover the equipment, Nadvi said, Athrout has deputed men to visit the homes of such patients on daily basis and ask them to hand over the equipment. “We had no other option given the influx of patients in need of them. We’re now forcibly taking the equipment from homes that are hoarding them unnecessarily,” Nadvi said.
Similarly, another NGO, Aab-E-Rawaan, voiced the same concern, saying that patients were hoarding the equipment at their homes without any requirement. “We don’t know why are patients doing this. It can have far reaching and deadly consequences for others in need. We need to have sympathy with others and extend all possible help to others to wade through this pandemic. If we keep thinking about ourselves only, this will lead to a crises of huge level,” an official of the NGO told Kashmir Reader.

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