Thalita Rocha Lima was visiting a crowded Covid-19 ward in Manaus, the largest Brazilian city on the Amazon, this month when her mother-in-law Maria and other patients suddenly became agitated, sweating and panting for air like fingertips. . it turned purple.
“I ran to check the equipment and then I realized: there was no more oxygen,” said Ms. Rocha Lima, who rushed down the corridor shouting, “They will die.”
The hospital director informed her that the hospital had run out of oxygen and did not know when she would get more, she said. Her mother-in-law, a 67-year-old retired nurse, suffocated about 14 hours after she ran out of oxygen, along with others in her ward, Rocha Lima said.
As Covid-19 cases rise sharply in much of the world, a lack of oxygen is forcing hospitals to ration it for patients and the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is rising. The problem is particularly acute in the developing world, but it has also hit hospitals in London and Los Angeles.
From Brazil to Zambia, overcrowded hospitals with too few resources are calling for an urgent supply of oxygen. In Mexico and South Africa, people store oxygen cylinders to try to avoid overflowing Covid-19 sections, sending higher prices and making it harder to rent tanks for poorer families. In Mexico, armed bandits steal oxygen tanks.