IDEX India team members this week donated dozens of oxygen concentrator machines to a local hospital to help patients struggling to overcome COVID-19 amid the ongoing battle against a surging variant of the virus. The team delivered the lifesaving machines to local government officials this week and they will be used at Sir Sayajirao General Hospital (SSG Hospital), the public hospital in Vadadora, where IDEX has a large manufacturing facility.
“When so many people were dying of COVID-19 because of lack of oxygen, we felt the need to do something. Our IDEX teams in India, China and the United States quickly organized to source and supply oxygen concentrators to the government hospital in Vadodara, where poor and helpless people could be saved,” IDEX Emerging Markets Group Executive Rajesh Prasad said.
Seventy five hospital grade oxygen concentrators were purchased with $100,000 in support from the IDEX Foundation.
“The fact that these oxygen concentrators, made by one of our customers in China, are equipped with compressors from Gast – an IDEX company – made it truly special to us. This equipment will help save lives during a terrible public health crisis. The work we do with IDEX Foundation truly matters and makes IDEX a great place to work,” Prasad said.
Across India, the healthcare system has struggled to serve the many people needing care over the last two months. Many hospitals have run out of beds and oxygen for patients. Indian hospitals oftentimes do not have central oxygen supplies pumped throughout their facilities, relying instead on oxygen canisters, which quickly became hard to get a month ago as the COVID variant surge began.
Dozens of IDEX India employees have contracted COVID-19 during the recent wave, driven by a new variant that has proven more contagious than the original virus. Fortunately, none have become critically ill. IDEX India has coordinated vaccination drives for employees at a time when securing vaccine doses has grown increasingly challenging.
