- Gift of the Givers will deliver CPAP machines to hospitals on the Garden Route.
- CPAP machines are mechanical, do not use electricity and deliver oxygen at a low to intermediate flow.
- Public hospitals will also receive personal protective equipment, non-contact thermometers, pulse oximeters and scrubs.
Garden Route hospitals will be offered a lifeline by Gift of the Givers when the organisation delivers 250 continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines from Monday.
The CPAP machines are mechanical, do not use electricity and deliver oxygen at a low to intermediate flow, Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said.
The machines offer an alternative treatment for Covid-19 by improving oxygen saturation.
The CPAP machine was designed by the SA National Ventilator Group. Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel commissioned its manufacture by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research through the Solidarity Fund.
Around 1 800 will be delivered to six provinces by Gift of the Givers over the course of a week.
"The importance of delivering these machines timeously cannot be underestimated. We have witnessed thousands of desperate patients requesting oxygen concentrators or pouring into hospitals, in many cases travelling for several hours from hospital to hospital in search of oxygen. Tragically, due to unavailability of sufficient oxygen delivery machines, many hundreds have died," Sooliman said.
As part of the donation to the Garden Route, public hospitals will also receive personal protective equipment (PPE), non-contact thermometers, pulse oximeters and scrubs. PPE will also be donated to several police stations.
