5 intubation boxes to help docs avoid contact while handling patients

In a first, intubation boxes for patients infected by coronavirus have been manufactured by the Western Railway.

In a first, intubation boxes for patients infected by coronavirus have been manufactured by the Western Railway.

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Five intubation boxes have been manufactured at the zonal railways’s Lower Parel workshop.

Intubation is the process of inserting an artificial ventilation tube into a patient’s body to ease breathing.

The box can be placed on the patient while the doctors are in the process of intubating a coronavirus patient and it helps medical staff to avoid direct contact or proximity with the patient, thus reducing the exposure to the Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes Covid-19.

There is a curved side that allows the box to be placed on the patient along with two holes. The holes placed above the head of the patient are to be used by the doctors for intubation.

A Western Railway confirmed the developments and said, “The boxes are manufactured with transparent acrylic sheets and are light-weight. They will avoid direct contact with the patient and reduce the chances of the virus spreading. More boxes are being manufactured.”

The five boxes have been presently allocated to the railway-operated Jagjivan Ram hospital in Mumbai Central that has been declared as a dedicated Covid-19 hospital by the Union railway ministry. Boxes are also being manufactured for other hospitals in the city.

Further, the railway ministry has also manufactured contactless diagnostic cubicles for coronavirus testing in its workshops across the country.

Earlier, both the Central and Western railway had converted coaches of their outstation trains into isolation wards. Of the 942 outstation coaches that were converted into isolation wards, 652 will be available for Maharashtra.

The coaches were converted into isolation wards in Matunga and Lower Parel workshop, Wadi Bunder, Bandra Terminus and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus(LTT) railway depots one the city.