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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.
Oxygen Industry Scrambles To Keep U.S. Patients With COVID-19 Breathing
By Yuki Noguchi
February 3, 2021
The cold snap late last year hit El Paso at the exact wrong time; new COVID-19 patients were streaming into hospitals, many needing high flows of oxygen to breathe. That abrupt, massive draw on the gas created myriad problems: It froze the hospital’s pipes and the vaporizers on oxygen tanks, restricting the flow by as much as 70%.
So local companies built pop-up tents with new oxygen pipes in hospital parking lots. That wasn’t the only hurdle; tubes, flow meters, nasal cannulas and portable cylinders needed to make the gas breathable were also in short supply.
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The cold snap late last year hit El Paso at the exact wrong time; new COVID-19 patients were streaming into hospitals, many needing high flows of oxygen to breathe. That abrupt, massive draw on the gas created myriad problems: It froze the hospital s pipes and the vaporizers on oxygen tanks, restricting the flow by as much as 70%.
So local companies built pop-up tents with new oxygen pipes in hospital parking lots. That wasn t the only hurdle; tubes, flow meters, nasal cannulas and portable cylinders needed to make the gas breathable were also in short supply.