Ceylinco Life donates ventilator to National Hospital

Ceylinco Life donated a portable ventilator to Wards 49 and 47B of the National Hospital following a request by the Consultant Physician in charge.

The ventilator will provide artificial breathing to critically ill patients at these wards and while they are in transit from the wards to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

In a letter to Ceylinco Life CEO R. Renganathan, Consultant Physician in charge of Wards 49 and 47B, Dr. Harshini Fernando said among the most benefitted by the donation would be patients with respiratory muscle paralysis due to neurological diseases, after snake bite or organo-phosphate poisoning.

"In these situations, breathing difficulty occurs as a temporary phenomenon, and death can be prevented if their breathing is restored by some means," she said.

"Most of the patients are young and have been active and healthy before the illness. If a ventilator maintains their breathing during this temporary inactive state, they will recover," Dr Fernando said.

Patients with sudden onset of heart failure, chest infection and severe attacks of asthma would also benefit from the portable ventilator, she said.

She said due to the non-availability of beds with ventilators at the ICU such patients are often kept in the ward, with either ward staff or relatives of the patient providing artificial breathing through a manually operated bag-valve-mask apparatus known as an 'ambu bag.'

Earlier this year, Ceylinco Life donated a surgical High Dependency Unit constructed, furnished and equipped by the company to Ward 6A of the Professorial Surgical Unit of the National Hospital, as part of its continuing commitment to the healthcare sector.