South Sulawesi Brings HFCN Oxygen Therapy Breathing Device For COVID-19 Patients With Severe Symptoms

ILLUSTRATION/UNSPLASH

MAKASSAR - The South Sulawesi Provincial Government has brought in a High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC) device to assist breathing with high-flow oxygen therapy as an effort to improve services for COVID-19 patients.

A total of 85 units of HFNC will be owned by the Provincial Government of South Sulawesi, of which 50 were requested by the Acting Governor of South Sulawesi Andi Sudirman Sulaiman to the Ministry of Health and 35 units were purchased by the Provincial Government of South Sulawesi.

"There are 35 HFNC units that have arrived today at the South Sulawesi COVID-19 Task Force post, these 35 units are financed by the South Sulawesi Provincial Government, the provincial government bought them," said Head of the Coordinator of the South Sulawesi COVID-19 Task Force Command and Secretariat Dr. Arman Bausat in Makassar, quoted by Antara, Friday, August 6th.

HFNC will be placed in the hospital ICU. With the presence of this device, the patient does not have to be incubated using an invasive ventilator to prevent respiratory failure and hypoxia.

Arman Bausat, who is also the Director of Dadi Hospital in South Sulawesi, explained that HFNC is for patients with severe symptoms due to exposure to COVID-19.

"This tool is good, and does not torture patients and can be used to deliver a lot of oxygen to patients who are very congested. This is a comfortable tool for patients, not too dangerous for patients, and easy to apply by doctors in the ICU," he said.

Arman said the newly arrived procurement of HFNC equipment was to support the many ICU rooms, because later there would be an additional 35 ICU rooms, according to the number requested by the Acting Governor of South Sulawesi.

According to him, these tools may also be used to support the handling of the pandemic in the regions.

"These 35 tools will also support the region, in addition to hospitals belonging to the South Sulawesi Provincial Government," he said.

Acting Governor of South Sulawesi Andi Sudirman Sulaiman said HFNC would increase the capacity of hospital ICUs in handling virus patients.

"Alhamdulillah, the results of the purchase of HFNC to help increase the ICU capacity of provincial and district/city hospitals have arrived," he said.

He said this tool is important for adding the conversion of hospital ICU beds in handling COVID-19 in South Sulawesi.

In the use of oxygen aids, if using a non-rebreathing mask (NRM) does not help increase oxygen saturation, then the next option is to use HFNC.

HFNC has an oxygen flow rate of 50-60 liters/minute, while using a ventilator with an oxygen flow rate of 15 liters per minute.