Mumbai hospital devises 'kavach' to move COVID-19 patients

In a bid to prevent spre of coronavirus infection among its medical staff, state-run J J Hospital has developed a transport chamber for contactless movement of COVID-19 patients within premises. Developed by general surgery department of hospital with help of engineers of a firm named Indomed Devices, patient transport 'kavach' aims to reduce risk of infection among hospital staff, visitors and or patients. Sanskrit word 'kavach' literally means an armour.

" cost-effective glass transport trolley has a HEPA filter at he end, which filters out particles as small as 0.02 microns," said Amol Wagh, assistant professor of surgery at J J Hospital.

"Everyday thousands of health care workers test positive for infection and have to be quarantined. This results in short of medical staff," he said.

Hence, invation in protective devices is need of hour as medical staff has to spend long hours in PPE kits, making it difficult for m to provide required patient care and treatment, Wagh ded. Speaking about invation, he of surgery, Dr Ajay Bhandarwar, who came up with concept, said trolley will t only prevent transmission of coronavirus, but it also protect COVID-19 patients with low immunity from contracting or infections from ir surroundings.

Patients can be incubated in trolley and tests, such as sography, can also be done when patient is inside chamber, Wagh said, ding that engineers and experts are working on ways to install chamber in ambulances and make it compatible for CT scans.