Vizag dockyard develops portable multi-feed oxygen unit for COVID-19 patients

Visakhapatnam: To cater to the requirement of oxygen for patients in various hospitals during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, personnel from the Naval dockyard in Visakhapatnam have designed an innovative ‘Portable Multi-feed Oxygen Manifold (MOM)’ unit.

Using a six-way radial header fitted to a single cylinder, this innovation would enable one oxygen bottle to be connected to six patients, thus enabling critical care management to a larger number of patients within the existing limited resources. The entire set up was made operational by the manufacture of a fine adjustment reducer and specific adapters of requisite dimensions for connecting the oxygen cylinder and the portable MOM.

A typical oxygen providing system at hospitals comprises of an oxygen cylinder feeding only one patient through a venti mask arrangement. During the ongoing pandemic, ventilator support will be required for about five to eight per cent of Corona virus patients with definable symptoms and others would need oxygen support as required. The existing facilities are not adequate to cater to such large requirements. A need was therefore felt to design a suitable portable arrangement that could provide oxygen through masks to a number of needy patients using a single cylinder during emergencies which is the need of the hour.

The preliminary trials of the entire assembly were conducted at MI Room at the Naval dockyard which was followed by rapid trials at the Naval Hospital, INHS Kalyani, wherein the portable MOM was successfully set up within 30 minutes. After successful trials, the officials at the dockyard commenced the manufacture of 10 portable MOMs right away at makeshift locations to quickly cater to the rising number of COVID-19 patients.