THE OXY WARRIORS

A QUICK-THINKING SOCIAL HELP GROUP BEAT SHORTAGES TO RUN AN INNOVATIVE LANGAR SUPPLYING FREE MEDICAL OXYGEN

- BANDEEP SINGH

KHALSA HELP INTERNATIONAL, NGO, Ghaziabad, founded in 2020

What it has done Provided medical oxygen for free to thousands of Covid patients

ON THE NIGHT OF APRIL 22, Gurpreet Singh Rummy, along with four fellow social workers, stood outside the Shri Guru Singh Sabha Gurudwara in Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, the streets around him a dystopian nightmare of death and helplessness. The 49-year-old president of Khalsa Help International (KHI), a social help group formed during the Covid lockdown in March 2020, was attempting to administer medical oxygen to a 55-year-old semi-conscious woman whose oxygen saturation level had dipped to 56 per cent. Reviving the woman not only meant they had saved a life, but also that they were one step ahead in putting into action an audacious plan to distribute free oxygen among Covid-19 patients right on the road.

15,000 APPROX. NUMBER OF PATIENTS REVIVED BY KHI BETWEEN APR. 23 AND MAY 14, 2021

1,800 NO. OF PEOPLE RAI HAS DELIVERED OXYGEN CYLINDERS TO; 500-ODD SO FAR IN COVID SECOND WAVE

It was something they had been planning for a week after watching hospitals turn away patients wheezing from lack of oxygen. With a prayer muttered under their breath, they administered the medical oxygen and after a tense 45 minutes, as her oxygen level hit 90 per cent, their confidence level shot to a 100. They posted a video of the incident on Facebook and by next morning, over a 100 vehicles with Covid patients in need of medical oxygen had lined up outside the gurudwara. Armed with 12 large oxygen cylinders, the 90-odd KHI volunteers got to work.