Yad Sarah offers emergency home oxygen services
Yad Sarah, Israel’s leading voluntary healthcare and social-services organization, on Sunday said it will establish an emergency respiratory system to help anyone who needs oxygen treatments at home if an escalation in hostilities triggers the collapse of the electricity grid.
The Energy Ministry had requested the precautionary measures.
The initiative will provide initial life-saving help to provide ongoing oxygen support. In the event of widespread power failures that could last hours or days, traditional oxygen concentrators that require a connection to electrical outlets would not function, putting the lives of those with breathing problems at risk.
In response, Yad Sarah has formulated a systemic solution for the thousands of Israelis who need at-home oxygen treatments. The initiative is underpinned by a comprehensive logistics framework designed to make the lives of those in need of respiratory support easier.
Yad Sarah facilities around the country are preparing to serve as “oxygen stations” that would host and quickly loan critical respiratory equipment in real time to those who require ongoing at-home and outpatient treatment. Its branches and hospitality units across the country are bolstering emergency inventories of portable oxygen concentrators and an extensive amount of oxygen cylinders that do not need to be connected to electricity.
In addition, Yad Sarah is appealing to those with surplus oxygen concentrators to donate them to one of the 126 Yad Sarah branches to bolster the emergency precautionary measures.
“For nearly 50 years, Yad Sarah has championed and continues to advance the notion of at-home hospitalization for optimal recovery, mainly through the provision of advanced equipment and customized medical technologies,” said Yad Sarah founder and president, Rabbi Uri Lupolianski, who has taken it upon himself to personally lead the emergency initiative. “Thousands of people with difficulty breathing already receive respiratory support from Yad Sarah’s oxygen system and supplementary equipment. We are steadfast in our commitment to helping them, acting in every way possible to protect their lives in the face of any scenario and even in the event of an emergency.”
Yad Sarah’s hotline is already working to match individuals with respiratory problems to “host” households in their immediate area where an oxygen generator is operating, including concentrators for keeping Shabbat without needing electricity.
The organization has already boosted its activities during wartime
Having boosted its activity amid wartime, the nongovernmental organization with its 7,000 volunteers has distributed a full year’s worth of medical equipment loans within three months, leading to a depletion of its emergency inventory. In response, the organization has swiftly taken action to procure and airlift critical items, including portable oxygen concentrators.