Thalita Rocha Lima visited this month a crowded Covid-19 room in Manaus, the largest Brazilian city in the Amazon, when her mother-in-law Maria and other patients suddenly shook and sweated and blew air like a spike. of the fingers. it turned purple.
“I ran to check the equipment and that’s when I realized: there was no more oxygen left,” said Mrs. Rocha Lima, who ran out into the hallway shouting, “They’re going to die.”
The hospital director informed her that the hospital had run out of oxygen and she did not know when she would get more, she said. Her mother-in-law, a 67-year-old retired nurse, drowned about 14 hours after the oxygen ran out, along with other people in her room, Ms. Rocha Lima said.
As Covid-19 cases rise sharply in much of the world, oxygen shortages are forcing hospitals to ration it for patients and the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is rising. The problem is especially acute in developing countries, but it has also affected hospitals in London and Los Angeles.
From Brazil to Zambia, overcrowded hospitals with too few resources demand emergency oxygen supplies. In Mexico and South Africa, people are storing oxygen drums to try to prevent Covid-19 rooms from overflowing, sending higher prices and making it difficult to rent tanks for poorer families. In Mexico, armed bandits steal oxygen tanks.