Delivering oxygen on TS highways
Ambulances transporting Covid patients to Hyderabad from distant places sometimes need oxygen additionally as their oxygen cylinders deplete before reaching the city and need to refill or exchange cylinders. And, when people are in need in such cases, there is this true-blue Hyderabadi who comes with help. Asif Hussain Sohail provides oxygen on highways far from Hyderabad.
Many people who rush their near ones to the city for Covid treatment and need oxygen in ambulances are availing this facility. People can get help by just calling the helpline number set up by Asif, which is in circulation on social media platforms.In case of necessity, ambulance service providers and locals inform Asif Hussain Sohail of the need for oxygen on highways and ask him to provide a cylinder at a given time and place. He and his team provide oxygen cylinders to such ambulances even
100-150 km away from Hyderabad.
Not just oxygen, the foundation he started in memory of his daughter has provided food to nine lakhs people during the lockdown without collecting donations from others. It has been providing daily food to the poor for the last ten years.
Mohammed Khalid of Hayathnagar is one of them who helped a relative through Asif Hussain. He said one of his close relatives Rafia Begum, who hails from Parbhani in Maharashtra was coming to Hyderabad in an ambulance for treatment of
Covid-19 and they informed him about the acute need of oxygen. He immediately contacted the helpline set up by Asif and explained the situation, who accepted his request. Asif Hussain took the phone number of one of the attendants and informed them that they could get a cylinder at a particular place on the highway.
Asif Hussain Sohail, on a mission to provide oxygen on wheels, said, “‘Oxygen on Wheel’ was conceptualised to meet the emergency needs of people on highways who are coming from remote areas to the city for treatment. On receiving SOS calls on the foundation’s helpline, our team of volunteers rushes to the spot that are sometimes as far as 180 km away with oxygen cylinders back up.”
He said his motto was to help people who are struggling to breathe. “Through this initiative, during an oxygen crisis, our main motive is to save lives and to cater to the maximum number of people before they reach the hospitals. All these services are being provided free of cost,” Asif said.
He said emergency oxygen cylinders were being provided to Covid patients who were at home, on highways or ambulances whose saturation reading is less than 80, those who are not getting beds and so on. “We are giving back-up to them till they find beds in hospitals. Every day we are providing more than 200 free cylinders in the city and so far, and more than 1,600 people benefited,” he said. Those who are in need of oxygen can contact Asif Hussain Sohail, chairman, Sakina Foundation, on
9885178688 or the helpline
8008008012 for any service.