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How this young IAS officer’s swift action saved hundreds of lives in two Bihar districts

On 8 May, an oxygen plant that supplied about 500 cylinders each to East and West Champaran broke down. What followed was a 10-hour operation that led to a ‘miraculous recovery’.

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Motihari: On 8 May, when SOS calls for medical oxygen were being sent out from hospitals across India, a lone oxygen plant that was servicing both East and West Champaran in Bihar broke down to the horror and panic of local authorities.

The plant, located in East Champaran’s Harsidhi, which is 27 kilometres away from district headquarter Motihari, was supporting over 800 patients in the two districts. And any mismanagement could have led to a medical catastrophe.

However, what followed was a “miraculous” recovery, due to the swift action of district authorities and plant technicians, who were successful in averting a major tragedy.

At 6.38 am, technicians at the oxygen plant named Gayatri Medical and Industrial Gases, discovered that the crankshaft — a part of the pump that helps fill oxygen in smaller cylinders — had broken, bringing the functioning of the plant to a grinding halt.

They immediately contacted the owner of the plant, Bankey Bihari.

“I got to know about it at 7.30am and I rushed to the spot and saw everything had stopped. I started panicking as nine small and big hospitals rely on the oxygen supply from this plant,” Bihari told ThePrint.

He added, “Humein jab pata chala ki plant band ho gaya hai… hum logon ki saans zaroor ruk gayi ki ab kya hoga (When we found out that the plant had stopped working, our breath definitely caught and we wondered what will happen now).”

Gayatri Medical and Industrial Gases has been supplying oxygen to both East and West Champaran districts and at the peak of the Covid second wave, it used to send up to 500 cylinders each to both districts’ hospitals every day.

Bihari immediately reached out to the nearby Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) bottling plant in Champaran, who dispatched their technical officials. The district administration had also asked these officials to assess the situation at the plant.

By 8am, Additional District Magistrate of East Champaran Sunil Kumar along with other senior officials had also reached the spot.

“We didn’t have a crankshaft so the District Magistrate called neighbouring Muzaffarpur and found out there is one shaft at the Patlipur Oxygen plant. He managed to get it transported to the site Harsidhi,” said Arjun Singh, a manager at the HPCL bottling plant.

“Meanwhile, I called our Delhi supplier to arrange one new set of crankshaft for the plant,” Singh told ThePrint.

The technicians were able to get the plant up and running by 5pm on a makeshift basis, just a little over 10 hours after it stopped working.

Meanwhile, the crankshaft ordered from Delhi was also airlifted to Patna on the same day and reached Harsidhi at 6pm. It was fitted into the plant the next day on 9 May.

East Champaran DM Kapil Ashok Shirsat and HPCL plant manager Arjun Singh assess the broken crankshaft at oxygen plant on 8 May | By special arrangement

Also read: Covid has stranded Muzaffarpur migrants at home — and there aren’t enough jobs for everyone


Uninterrupted oxygen supply provided by DM

The Gayatri oxygen plant had stopped working at the peak of the second wave, where there was an acute shortage of medical oxygen across the country. And the districts of East and West Champaran were no exception.

All hospitals were working beyond their capacities in both the districts.

“In Sadar Hospital, all of our 122 oxygen beds were occupied and all 129 oxygen cylinders connected to beds. With the news of this oxygen plant snag, we felt this is it. We will also face a tragedy but fortunately our DM managed it well,” said Dr U.S. Patnaik, who was on duty on 8 May in Sadar Hospital, Motihari.

District Magistrate of East Champaran Kapil Ashok Shirsat not only helped arrange the crankshaft but also ensured constant supply of oxygen to East Champaran.

Civil Surgeon and Chief Medical Officer, East Champaran, Dr Akhileshwar Prasad Singh said that there was panic in the entire hospital as there were news of dozens dying in other hospitals.

He also credited DM Shirsat and his team for their swift action in fixing the oxygen plant and also ensuring that oxygen supply was uninterrupted in the interim.

Several beds in Sadar hospital in East Champaran’s Motihari are dependent on oxygen supply | Photo: Sajid Ali | ThePrint

Also read: BJP ‘anti-Muslim’, vaccines will ‘sterilise’ us — why these Bihar Muslim villages shun Covid jab


Help from other districts and Nepal

To ensure that oxygen supply to hospitals remained uninterrupted while the plant was getting fixed, the district magistrate reached out to neighbouring districts for the refilling of cylinders. The district also received help from Nepal, which the district shares a border with.

“Batiya was tagged to Gopalganj district and Champaran East was tagged with Muzaffarpur and Samastipur districts. The district magistrates also helped with some cylinders. We even contacted our Consulate General in Birganj, Nepal who helped us arrange 15 oxygen cylinders from our neighbouring country,” Shirsat told ThePrint.

Not only does East Champaran share a 60-kilometre border with Nepal, but there also exists a deep cultural, economic and religious nexus among the people.

One of the largest Indo-Nepal border crossings, at Raxaul, is also situated in the district, which is an economic lifeline between the two countries.

“We had arranged oxygen supplies for the the hospitals near Nepal border in Raxaul like Dunkan and SRP hospital from other districts of Bihar but at the peak time we got in touch with our Consulate General in Birganj who arranged 15 cylinders for us and were delivered to mentioned hospitals,” Shirsat said.

Kapil Ashok Shirsat, DM of East Champaran | Photo: Sajid Ali | ThePrint

‘We just wanted to do our part’

After the 10-hour-long struggle to get the plant functioning again, the entire team credited DM Shirsat for its success.

Bihari too said that he was fortunate to be part of this operation.

“This success made me forget all the trouble I had to face while setting up this plant in 2018. It took me a lot of time to clear the license, make my name in the market but at the end of the day I am glad I was part of this,” he noted.

Similarly, the team of technicians from HPCL said that they took it not just as some work but as a responsibility to save the lives of people who they had never seen.

“There were too many people waiting for our response so we gave our 100 per cent to make sure the plant resumes operation,” said Singh.


Also read: When ‘hell’ came floating on Ganga — Bihar village in shock after 71 bodies wash ashore


 

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