PATIALA:Complaints of shortness of breath in the current round of COVID-19 should be taken seriously. The people should not be remained under the illusion that they will get oxygen in their homes when they have difficulty in breathing.
This revelation was made by Prof. Raminder Pal Singh Sibia, Head, Department of Medicine, Government Medical College, Patiala and Rajindra Hospital. Dr. Sibia said, "Around 85 per cent of infected people do not have any symptoms of Corona but the rest have severe symptoms, including shortness of breath, fever and a variety of other symptoms, which can be life-threatening if ignored."
Dr. Sibia said that although Corona is incurable, the infection can lead to many other symptoms of death in the patient, so people do not have to believe in any kind of rumors and avoid domestic therapies. The symptomatic patient should be immediately shifted to the nearest Government Health Center or tertiary Government Hospital. He said that the only reason for the high number of deaths at present was that by the time the patient came to the hospital, he had already suffered a lot.
The Head of the Department of Medicine clarified that patients suffering from shortness of breath are given oxygen at Rajindra Hospital through various methods, which is not an easy task to do at home. Dr. Sibia said that if the patient has a slight difficulty in breathing, an oxygen face mask is applied and if there is still difficulty, the ventricle is monitored continuously by applying 30 or 50 per cent oxygen.
But if the condition still does not improve then NRM (non-breathable mask) is used at the rate of 100 per cent oxygen at the rate of 10 or 15 liters. This is followed by high flow nasal cannula, through which oxygen is applied at high pressure and if it does not work properly, then bipap method applied without inserting a tube into the throat. In most critical patients, a pipe is intubated into the throat to provide oxygen through a ventilator and is constantly monitored.
Dr. RPS Sibia said that under the Mission Fateh launched under the leadership of Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, all the treatment facilities for the patients were available free of cost in the COVID Care block set up at Rajindra Hospital for the treatment of COVID-19 positive patients. He said that there are expensive tests for the patients including D-dimer, procalcitonin, X-ray, CT scan, dialysis, expensive injections like blood thinners Tusi, etc. being provided free of cost .
Dr. Sibia finally appealed to the people to rush symptomatic and comorbid COVID patients to the hospital for treatment in time as they need treatment immediately and not to risk their lives by believing any rumors. He said most of the case, in which deaths have been reported, patients were rushed to Rajindra Hospital in a critical condition. Dr. Sibia said that under 'Mission Fateh', doctors, paramedics and every staff and officer are working hard to defeat COVID-19.