Oxygen delivery catastrophe

RIVERLEA: SICKLY PATIENTS STRUGGLING BECAUSE OF SLOW PROCUREMENT OF EQUIPMENT

Resumption of load shedding adds to situation that puts lives in jeopardy.

Load shedding could mean death for dozens of state outpatients in Riverlea in Joburg who are dependent on oxygen concentrators to stay alive. Concerns were raised this week over the slow procurement of oxygen delivery equipment at government hospitals.

In a community ridden by air pollution and poisonous water due to several abandoned gold mines in its surrounds, patients dependent on respirators can be found around every corner.

Many of these patients are elderly and of scant means in the impoverished community. They suffer from various illnesses, including silicosis, and are also affected by apartheid-era asbestos infrastructure in their houses.

“The most serious is the respiratory problems we have been having. Most of the people are getting the oxygen but the problem is the supply. Like now, we are having load shedding.

“Once there is load shedding, these guys will need an extra supply,” said Charles van der Merwe, a community activist working with the Benchmarks Foundation.

Van der Merwe regularly checks on the 16 patients in his 5km radius to make sure they don’t run out of oxygen, which is delivered regularly in tanks.

That oxygen is used when the machine is not plugged into a power source and is able to hold patients over during short power outages.

But some patients were concerned that illegal connections and cable theft made planned and unplanned outages a regular occurrence over the lockdown period. With load shedding back in earnest, the danger was ever more imminent.

“With load shedding, I can stay without oxygen for about an hour or two hours. After that I have to have oxygen. So the tank is coming in for the extra two hours whenever load shedding occurs,” said 66-year-old Jacob Ismail. “Three hours on, three hours off,” he said, explaining how often he is hooked up to the concentrator.

“But during the night I have to sleep with it. That is the time when I really need the oxygen. That is why the tank must come in. That is why we want to know if it’s empty, can they refill it immediately?”

This week, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize raised concerns that Gauteng, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape may be running low on oxygen as hospitals and beds filled up in the

At Nasrec they didn’t put in pipes to convey the oxygen