Stop Oxygen Administration at Home –Ugandans Urged
By Damba Rogers
Mulago hospital Executive Dr. Baterana Byarugaba has advised people to stop administering oxygen to covid19 patients from home saying that it’s very dangerous to people’s health.
Addressing journalists at the hospital, Dr. Byarugaba stated that oxygen administration from home to a patient can be very dangerous since it requires monitoring from a knowledgeable person who may not be available at a patient’s home.
“It’s better for people to use oxygen in the gazetted health facility, not go and treat yourself at home, when you are dying at home then you come, I have seen a numeral of people including some few health workers I have heard about, who tried to treat themselves at home, they all went to the almighty God,” Dr. Baterana explained.
He urged Ugandans not to treat themselves at home with oxygen, noting any patient in need of oxygen must be taken to a nearby reserved health facility for treatment, apart from those that are asymptomatic.
On reports that Mulago has run out of oxygen, Dr, Baterana maintains that the hospital has enough oxygen to administer to the patients it currently has though he expressed fear that soon they might run out of the precious consumables.
Currently, the facility has 2083 liters per minute against 4000 liters of production capacity.
One covid19 patient consumes oxygen meant for seven patients with normal diseases.
