Helping the oxygen supply crisis for COVID-19 patients in India
Eleonore Poli is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, specialising in Materials & Metallurgy. In July, she will take on the role of Vice-Curator for the Global Shapers Cambridge Hub. She is an analogue astronaut and commander for Asclepios I Genesis and Luna Team CHILL ICE EuroMoonMars. In March 2020, she helped the Global Shapers to gather information regarding COVID-19 to help the World Health Organisation in media information.
Although COVID-19 seems to be losing the battle to vaccines in European countries, the pandemic situation in India has rapidly deteriorated over the last few months. The number of patients needing oxygen due to lung damage from COVID-19 has increased at such a rate that hospitals can no longer welcome patients. But not only are rooms available in insufficient numbers, the actual supply of oxygen also ruptured in mid-April. People can be seen queuing in front of hospitals gasping for breath, whilst patients inside hospitals can see critical hours ticking as they wait for much-needed oxygen. Healthcare professionals are desperate for help.
To address this pressing need, the Indian Government has organised oxygen express trains to deliver more oxygen to areas in need, but sometimes the simple access to masks or hospitals is limited, meaning the effect of these trains is limited. Alongside Global Shapers from around the world, we are attempting to provide a solution for patients awaiting medical care by converting diving tanks enriched in oxygen into oxygen tanks for patients in need. We are using an adaptor to change the mouthpiece on the second stage of the diving tank set-ups and plug it into medical grade oxygen masks tubing. We are also aiming to reduce the waste of oxygen by creating a CO2 trap. The system removes the additional CO2 and enriches the air loop with oxygen so the patient can rebreathe the gas mix.
Both set-ups are currently being developed and tested at the University of Cambridge (UK) before being created in India. They are being developed by Alexander Gentleman, Eleonore Poli, Marcel Yiao and Tushita Rohilla (IIT, India). In parallel to the set-ups, the team are also working to identify diving centres, determine regions in most urgent need, and arrange transportation of the diving tanks. This work is being facilitated by Global Shapers Hub members, including Raman Singh Saluja, Ninoschka Pinto, Karanvir Singh. They are also helping to raise the necessary funds for the renting and distribution of the bottles.
Although the challenge is large, this international collaboration aims to offer hope to those in need. For Global Shapers in Europe, preparing for bright horizons as restrictions ease, this crisis in India is a sharp reminder that the rest of the planet is still being affected by the pandemic — but that something can be done. The solidarity that was so strong at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 is still very much present, and still very much needed, and the tools developed over a year of pandemic have drastically helped international collaboration.
I remember in March 2020, when I was in the first year of my PhD in Materials & Metallurgy, I felt a strong pull to help people in the crisis but lacked the tools and knowledge. I saw how medical personnel were often putting their lives on the line to help others, and I felt powerless to not be able to do the same. Now a year later, I’m better equipped to help, to give hope and hopefully, to save lives as an engineer, Global Shaper and project leader.
The Global Shapers network has been a fantastic tool, as I could contact relevant people (for example, curators of Hubs in India) extremely quickly. Hopefully, in the long run, the name “Global Shapers” will have increased in popularity, and it will confer enough meaning to obtain quick governmental collaboration and tools so we can mobilise faster and more effectively in response to future crises.
