A retired Class-IV employee donated an oxygen concentrator to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) for treatment of Covid patients. Balaram Behera, a resident of Gopalgaon and retired employee of a women’s college has procured an oxygen concentrator out of his own source of income and handed it over to Chief District Medical Officer Dulalsen Jagdeo.
Behera known for his social services is an environmentalist too. He plants saplings round the year. In the post retirement period, he had saved a small amount of Rs 52,000 by cutting down his expenses on mobile recharge and petrol in a piggy box. After learning that patients were dying in the want of oxygen he broke it and found that money was enough for a concentrator. Then he decided to procure one and donate same, he said. Behera, who advocates and propagates planting trees stressed that in schools students must plant saplings (at least 7) in a week and look after them. The present crisis for fresh oxygen would be mitigated to a large extent by plantation, he opined.
The noble gesture of Behera is appreciated here by everyone in town including CDMO. In meanwhile an overseas Odia organisation has donated three oxygen concentrators to DHH. The machines were handed over to CDMO in presence of district Collector.
Association secretary Minakentan Mishra, Soubhagya Ranjan Mohanty, Nagendranath Samal, Satyasiba Das and many others were present during handing over of machines. NGO Breath India members Dr Tapati Panda and Dr Ranjan Subiha are coordinating donation of oxygen concentrators across India.