Navy donates critical oxygen manifold units

These will help connect six patients to a single oxygen cylinder

The Naval Dockyard handed over five Multi-feed Oxygen Manifold (MOM) units to the District Collector in Visakhapatnam.

The units, developed by the personnel of the Naval Dockyard, will enable hospital staff to supply oxygen from one cylinder simultaneously to six patients, thereby improving critical care management for a larger number of COVID-19 patients by using limited resources.

The entire setup was made operational by the manufacture of a ‘fine adjustment reducer’ and specific adapters of requisite dimensions for connecting the oxygen cylinder and the portable MOM.

“The existing facilities are inadequate to cater to such large requirements. A need was therefore felt to design a suitable portable arrangement that could provide oxygen through masks to several needy patients using a single cylinder during emergencies which is the need of the hour,” said Rear Admiral Sreekumar Nair, Admiral Superintendent of the Naval Dockyard who handed over the equipment to the Collector.

The preliminary trials of the entire assembly were conducted at the MI Room of the Naval Dockyard, which was followed by rapid trials at the Naval Hospital INHS Kalyani, where the portable MOM was successfully set up in half an hour. After successful trials, Naval Dockyard commenced the manufacture of portable MOM with two six-way radial headers.