Airlines pitch in amid Covid: IndiGo flies plasma, SpiceJet launches portable ventilator support

IndiGo officials said the airline is only the second in the world to have transported plasma like this successfully; SpiceJet device can be used for maintaining oxygen levels and ventilation in patients

Low-cost airline IndiGo on Tuesday flew two bags of blood plasma a person in Bengaluru donated after recovering from Covid-19 for convalescent plasma therapy for a critical 60-year-old woman infected by the disease in Srinagar. The plasma was delivered in over eight hours via Delhi to a hospital in Srinagar, around 3,000 km away, in the first such delivery in the country across two cities during the pandemic.

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IndiGo officials said the airline is only the second in the world to have transported plasma like this successfully.

“The creation of the first air corridor in India to transport blood plasma can have a huge positive impact on the treatment of Covid-19 patients through plasma therapy,” said IndiGo‘s chief executive officer Ronojoy Dutta.

Bengaluru’s HCG Cancer Hospital associate dean, Dr Vishal Rao, said plasma therapy is one of the promising lines of Covid-19 treatment. “The creation of a successful air corridor opens up new possibilities for the treatment of patients with Covid-19 with plasma from anywhere in the country. We would like to thank Captain Rahul Srivastava, IndiGo CarGo team and BIAL [Bangalore International Airport] in helping us save lives by making this possible.”

The therapy has long been used to treat diseases and involves taking antibody-rich plasma from patients, who have recovered from Covid-19, and giving it to those with severe infection for fester recovery from the disease.

SpiceJet, another low-cost airline, has separately launched a portable ventilation device SpiceOxy for patients with mild to moderate breathing issues. It has also introduced a fingertip pulse oximeter that can measure blood oxygen levels. Airline officials said the light weight device can be used at home, in an ambulance, on in hilly terrain.

SpiceJet’s chairman and managing director Ajay Singh said: “I am sure these non-invasive, portable ventilators will greatly help patients with breathing issues and other chronic problems, and can be easily used at home and taken along during travel.”

SpiceJet Technic, a subsidiary of SpiceJet, has designed SpiceOXY to provide non-invasive ventilator support to treat adult and paediatric patients with obstructive sleep apnea or respiratory insufficiency. The device can be used for maintaining oxygen levels and ventilation in patients. It can be of help for symptomatic Covid-19 patients with mild to moderate breathing symptoms to maintain oxygen saturation.