Odisha: Hospital bid to reduce oxygen dependency through exercise

BHUBANESWAR: Patients undergoing treatment at the City Hospital here have been asked to go for different chest physiotherapy techniques to reduce the oxygen dependency.
A 120-bed dedicated Covid care hospital was set up in the City Hospital by the district administration. It has 22 patients at present.
After the physiotherapists of the integrated physiotherapy unit and of the district’s early intervention centre trained the patients in proning and in holding that position, they installed a recorded video in every room of the Covid ward for them to be able to practise it regularly.
“Different postures and proning instructions of our physiotherapists have been recorded in the video and are played three to four times in day, as it was not possible for them to instruct the patients every day,” Prasant Kumar Patra, public health expert and supervising officer of the Covid centre at the City Hospital, said.
He added, “We introduced this therapy after due consultations with superintendent Rajendra Das and other doctors, who said it could improve the oxygen saturation level in patients with mild and moderate symptoms. The government has also recommended this exercise.”
Chest physiotherapy is a technique through which the lung capacity can be improved by stimulation of the muscles. “It helps remove the secretions trapped in the lungs,” Shashank Sekhar Parida, in-charge of IPU, City Hospital, said. “Physiotherapy can be done during both the pre and post-recovery treatment of the Covid patients to cope with breathlessness, weakness, mental depression, etc.,” Srutirekha Mohapatra, another physiotherapist, added.