Calcutta Rescue has set up a quick reaction team to help people in the slums survive the second wave of Covid which is spreading fast across Kolkata which is now in a partial lockdown.
Eight Calcutta Rescue staff have teamed up. With hospital beds and oxygen very hard to find in the city now, the team is providing vital advice for severely ill patients and staff and helping to get them admitted to a hospital.
Three older members of the NGO’s Governing Council, which runs the charity, had fallen sick in the past few days, and one of them, sadly, passed away. Chief Executive, Jaydeep Chakraborty, said the situation is extremely grave: “Everyone now knows a friend or family member who is severely ill or has died.”
Subhajit, the Head of Calcutta Rescue Talapark education centre, is also a member of the Quick Response Team.
“We have a database that is full of leads for emergency services. The moment we get a request we start calling the contacts to know what is available. The database is always being updated as we get new leads.”
Sometimes it can also be frustrating. During the second wave, India has seen a high demand but inadequate supply of hospital beds and oxygen. So Quick Response Team members have heard negative answers from the leads more than often they liked.
“Sometimes when I call people for hospital beds for an emergency patient but hear a ‘not available’ from the other side. I feel helpless.” said Tuli, Vocational Training Manager and a Quick Response Team member of CR.
Quick Response Team is on standby 24/7. They have already helped one beneficiary student family who was Covid positive. The family was provided with emergency guidance, medicine and a pulse oximeter. They are out of danger and is getting better.
Along with it, Calcutta Rescue has prepared a Covid Emergency Box for the beneficiaries who might need emergency care.
The box has full PPE kits, nebulizer machines, pulse oximeters, inhalers and spacer, blood pressure checking machine, and steroid medicines like dexamethasone. Oxygen cylinder with oxygen mask is also on standby.
An Emergency team has been made of CR staff and drivers who will accompany Sheila, Calcutta Rescue staff to the patient’s home.
Watch our staff Sheila explaining the Covid Emergency Box.
