Volunteers Say Unused Equipment Could Save Lives in India
You can help save lives by donating spare portable Oxygen Concentrators and CPAP/ BiPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machines.
Local volunteers are asking local residents to donate spare CPAP machines and oxygen concentrators to be modified for use as non-invasive ventilators in India, which has seen a spike in COVID-19 deaths and is expecting another surge by October as life-saving equipment is in short supply.
By one estimate, ten million such machines are in American homes and not being used.
Dr. Kusum Atraya, a dentist in Gilroy, spearheaded the effort in May to collect and modify CPAP machines, used for sleep apnea, after engineers, scientists, and doctors from Stanford and Berkeley found they could be repurposed by adding a few valves and filters.
IndiaCovidSOS.org is collecting the machines and providing parts to modify them, and arranging for them to be shipped to rural parts of the world, where health care infrastructure is poor and likely will be overwhelmed with any COVID-19 wave.
Last year, a precursor to this project, called VentilatorSOS (ventilatorsos.org) identified these machines as an untapped resource, and collected 20,000 BiPAP/CPAP machines from across the nation, repurposed them and sent them to 20 different countries.
COVID-19 cases in India have surged since April, with thousands of deaths reported daily, and projections are that the country may experience 1.16 million total deaths by October. About 500 people each day die of Covid in India, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Experts are expecting a third wave due to the Delta and Delta-2 variants, putting even more pressure on an already-inadequate healthcare system. Ventilators and oxygen are in critically low supply.
In rural areas, vaccination rates remain low and only 10% of the world’s population is vaccinated, according to IndiaCovidSOS.org, which plans to send the modified CPAP machine to wherever in the world COVID-19 help is needed most urgently.
In Santa Cruz County, spare CPAP/BIPAP machines can be dropped off in Santa Cruz at the Valero gas stations, 1319 Ocean St. or 2202 Mission St., or in Watsonville at the 7-Eleven, 1455 Freedom Boulevard.
To request a prepaid shipping label to mail your spare machine at no cost to you or for more drop off locations, see www.indiacovidsos.org/equipmentdonation or see docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5Kk4konIeuKx2EtOzJ4i9xu3Exa4wzrFQwVjdBjhOmDoLYg/viewform
For questions, call 408-842-5037, Dr Attraya’s Gilroy Family Dental Office, or email [email protected]
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Photos: Volunteers collecting and modifying CPAP machines for use as non-invasive ventilators for people with COVID-19 in India.