Lebanon as a country is suffocating. Its public health sector is on the brink. Unable to keep up with coronavirus patients, the depreciation of the Lebanese lira and the repairs of the Beirut blast damages, hospitals are running out of beds, oxygen tanks, ventilators and staff.
Mohammad Eter, Anera’s medical logistics and monitoring officer in Lebanon, says,
"At a time when about 60 deaths are reported on a daily basis due to COVID-19 and more than 3,000 are fighting to gasp for air, the importance of the critical care ventilator donated to [the American University of Beirut Medical Center] is difficult to overstate. It is life saving."
In response to the request for a state-of-the-art ICU ventilator by our partners the AUBMC, Anera used its emergency funds to procure and deliver a brand new Nihon Kohden ventilator to the hospital’s doorstep. We have to continue acting with urgency. In recent months, AUBMC closed some of its units in order to concentrate limited staff and equipment in the most pressing departments, like the new 8 post-COVID ICU beds they rapidly installed to expand their capacity.
Zuhair Khalili, the director of biomedical engineering at AUB Medical Center, says,
“This donation from Anera, a Nihon Kohden ventilator, is a very important addition to our assets in the hospital, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
This artificial breathing machine will allow the hospital to address the mandatory increase in its ICU capacity and accommodate the huge influx of COVID-19 patients.
“This piece is now part of our armada of ventilators, allowing us to ensure more people get the proper care,” Khalili says.
“This donation is an amazing addition to our ICU.”
Nihon Kohden ventilators can only be used in the hospital under the supervision of specialists and inhalation therapists. It does more than provide oxygen, like the concentrated O2 machines that patients can also use at home. These ventilators actually take on the role of artificial lungs, pumping air filled with oxygen into the lungs and then helping to exhale it.
Khalili says,
“It goes without saying that the weight on hospitals has increased dramatically with the crash of the economy, as it has increased on the patients. Medicines and medical equipment have become much more expensive and difficult to obtain, in both required quantities and necessary timeframes. So this donation is an amazing addition to our ICU, and quite the difficult one to add on our own, in times such as these.”
Our medical donations team continues to rigorously map the needs of Lebanon’s hospitals and healthcare centers, reaching out to specialized international donors and like-minded supporters who can assist us in sharing some of the burden borne by hospitals.
“I would like to thank Anera and all the parties involved in providing this invaluable donation. I hope they have the capacity to go on and keep supporting frontline workers, as they work tirelessly to save lives. Thank you.”
