Oxygen is the source of life to all cells. Where there is no oxygen, there is no life. Oxygen plays a pivotal role in the proper functioning of the immune system, hence its major usefulness in this COVID-19 era. What oxygen is to lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life. Oxygen deficiency is the single greatest cause of all diseases.
Consequently, realizing the all-important role oxygen plays in humane existence, the proactive governor of Anambra state, Sir Willie Obiano, on August 8, 2019, long before the advent of the most dreaded coronavirus pandemic, inaugurated a multi-million naira medical oxygen plant at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Amaku, Awka.
Today, the proactive nature of the governor has paid off. Oxygen plays prominent role in the survival of coronavirus. Thus, most states are depending on Anambra for the supply of oxygen for their COVID-19 patients.
By investing in the oxygen plant, Governor Obiano has driven healthcare delivery in Anambra State to a laudable new level. The installed oxygen plant has the capacity to serve, not just the hospitals in Anambra State, but also beyond. Already, all the 500 primary health centres in the state have been given two oxygen cylinders free as directed by Governor Obiano.
The oxygen plant is a noble investment, which has helped in generating employment as well as boosting the Internally Generated Revenue drive of the state government.
Above all, the oxygen plant has positioned the state to blaze the trail in medical tourism. Anambra State would thus be the place to call by patients from all over the surrounding states with ailments like respiratory insufficiency, coronavirus, acute pneumonia, heart failure, energy generation, lung malfunction etcetera.
The plant, valued at about five hundred million naira, has the capacity of producing 200 standard oxygen cylinders daily. No doubt, it was in a bid to ensure that emergency situations and many challenging health conditions of Anambra people were met that informed the building of the plant by Akpokuedike.
Oxygen, no doubt, is important to the human body, especially in cases of trauma as a result of accidents, COVID-19, contraction during labour or severe asthma, when certain levels of oxygen will be needed to resuscitate victims. We all get very excited when we wake up in the morning and we are full of oxygen.
Illness is the result of improper removal of toxins from the body. Oxygen is the vital factor which assists the body in removing toxins. Basic human contact – the meeting of eyes, the exchange of words – is to the psyche what oxygen is to the brain. Ninety percent of metabolic oxygen comes from breathing. Only ten percent comes from food.
It is therefore a thing of joy that the oxygen plant in Anambra State is currently the biggest in the South-East and was built primarily to meet local demands from medical installations in Anambra State and beyond.
Before the establishment of the oxygen plant in Awka, story was told about a man that narrated how he had a malformed child. He said that they could not source for oxygen around, compelling him and his wife to travel to University of Benin Teaching Hospital in search of treatment for the baby. He however regretted that the child died because of the time wasted before they could give her the necessary medications.
Happily, with the oxygen plant in COOUTH, people would no longer suffer as much as that. The challenges of ailing patients, especially coronavirus patients in Anambra and surrounding states can be said to be over. The oxygen plant at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Amaku Awka is indeed a clear and present need. May God continue to bless Akpokuedike!
WRITTEN BY DR. NNAMDI NWADIOGBU
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