The recent oxygen crisis that has gripped the country’s hospitals has crippled the healthcare system and patients are finding it increasingly difficult to avail hospital beds, medicines and oxygen supply. At such a time, good Samaritans have sensed the acute shortage and risen up to occasion to help as much as they could. But there have been some godsends who have gone out of their way to help those in need. Mumbai’s Shahnawaz Sheikh is one such person. The Malad resident, known as the ‘Oxygen Man’ in his locality, has been working tirelessly to help make the supply of oxygen available to patients through just a phone call. Working with a team, Shahnawaz has also set up a ‘control room’ to streamline the efforts, India.com reported.

Shahnawaz has been a staunch coronavirus warrior since last year, helping out those in need constantly. The 31-year-old’s resolve to help the helpless during times of such unprecedented crisis was strengthened after his friend’s wife passed away last year due to lack of oxygen in an auto-rickshaw. This prompted Shahnawaz to sell his prized Rs 22 lakh Ford Endeavour to raise money to buy oxygen cylinders. He was able to procure 160 of them and started working to help people

The demand for supply has increased manifolds. While 3 months back, he was answering 50 calls for oxygen daily, now it has shot up to 500-600 calls everyday, Shahnawaz was quoted as saying. Shahnawaz and his team explain the procedure to help the oxygen cylinders and after usage, the empty ones are sent back to them. So far the team has helped over 4,000 people, Shahnawaz said.

Shahnawaz is one of the many such coronavirus warriors who have been fighting the pandemic and trying to provide the life-breathing supply to people. Patna’s Gaurav Rai has so far saved the lives of more than 950 coronavirus patients by providing them with oxygen cylinders at their homes. Carrying oxygen cylinders in his small WagonR car, Gaurav starts his day as early as 5 am and many days it continues beyond mid-night, zooming from one colony to the other, driving his car himself and installing cylinders for the patients who are home-quarantined due to Covid-19.

Gaurav does not charge a penny for this service and he is continuing this noble service for the last one year without a single day break.