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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Hospitals in Brazil and in Mexico and across much of Africa face shortages of oxygen for COVID-19 patients. Some U.S. hospitals have also run short. Now the industry that supplies medical oxygen is learning how to anticipate and correct those shortfalls. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: A cold snap late last year hit El Paso at the exact wrong time. New COVID-19 patients streamed into hospitals, many needing high flows of oxygen to live. But huge volumes of the gas created problems. It froze the hospital's pipes and vaporizers.