WR’s Lower Parel workshop manufactures intubation boxes to fight COVID 19

In the fight towards the deadly Coronavirus Pandemic, Western Railway’s employees have displayed exemplary skills and dedication in efforts to battle the virus effectively. Western Railway’s several workshops have come forward with ingenious ways by making reusable masks in large amounts, sanitizers as per the guidelines given by WHO, Coveralls, caps, Beds, non contact water taps, IV stands, Isolation coaches and others.

To make the fight more effective for the heroes in hospitals, Western Railway’s Lower Parel Workshop created Intubation Boxes as a new medical accessory for the benefit of doctors and nurses.

According to a press release issued by WR CPRO Ravinder Bhakar, a request had come from some of our medical team to develop such kind of accessory so that direct contact could be avoided while handling COVID patient for medical staff. Under the guidance of Arun Kumar Singh – Dy. Chief Mechanical Engineer(R) of Lower Parel Workshop, the manufacturing of the Intubation Boxes took place at the Basic Training Centre of the Carriage Repair Workshop, Lower Parel.

Lower Parel workshop perhaps is the first among Railways to manufacture and supply of Intubation boxes to Jagjivan Ram Hospital a converted COVID hospital of Western Railway in Mumbai. As of now, a total of five such accessories have been manufactured and handed over to the hospital. The boxes are being made ensuring all the necessary precautions needed for operating the patient under COVID-19 as suggested by medical team.

Box contains a curved side to insert patients head to his chest in addition to two more holes for the doctors to put their hands in for operating. The boxes are manufactured using 3 mm transparent Acrylic sheets and the size of each box are of 30″ 24″ 20″ in height. Weighing only 2 to 3 kg and sealed to perfection by providing L type PVC moulding of 1” fixed with adhesive and nut bolts, makes it Airtight .

The intubation boxes are helpful for the doctors and nurses as it avoids direct contact with the patient. The construction of the box is very useful in a way that a patient can be treated mainly during the procedure while putting tube to connect the ventilator or while taking a throat swab etc. The intubation box reduces the infection threat to a wider extent.

The team that executed the task under the leadership of Prashant Deshmukh – Senior Section Engineer, in-charge of Basic Training Centre along with Senior Section Engineers Sanjay Kumar Bhavsar, Satish Samrut, Arvind Javadia and apprentices Jus Sisodia, Siddesh Sane, Pratik Tandel, Satish Sharma, Rakesh Mirapagar and Narendra Manel were instrumental in getting these Intubation Boxes made to completion. Western Railway salutes their collective effort to come forward in the fight towards Coronavirus Pandemic.