Actor Sonu Sood worked through Tuesday night along with his team to provide oxygen cylinders to save the lives of over 20 patients at the ARAK hospital in Bengaluru in response to an SOS call.
Sood took to Twitter to express his pride for the team, calling them “heroes” and their sheer dedication towards the issue.
So proud of my heroes who worked the whole night to provide Oxygen Cylinders to the patients at the ARAK hospital in Bangalore and saved 20 lives.All thanks to @hashmath_raza, @digitalraaghav, @meghachowdhary4, @rakshasom, @radhika28336907, @niddhi_buch & @k.p.sathyanarayana sir
— sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 4, 2021
On Tuesday, inspector of Yelahanka Old Town MR Satyanarayan called a team member of Sood Charity Foundation about an emergency situation at the ARAK Hospital where two people died due to lack of oxygen. The team verified the situation and arranged for 15 oxygen cylinders within a few hours which helped save the lives of at least 20-22 persons.
“This was sheer teamwork and the will to help our fellow countrymen. As soon as we got the call from Inspector Satyanrayan, we verified it and got to action within minutes. The team spent the entire night not thinking about anything but just helping the hospital to get oxygen cylinders. Had there been any delay, many families could have lost their close ones,” Sood told ANI.
“I want to thank everyone who helped in saving so many lives last night. It’s such actions by my team members that makes me want to keep going on and on and trying to make a difference in the lives of people. I am extremely proud of Hashmath who was in touch with me throughout the whole team and the entire team who helped them,” he said.
On May 1, Sood wrote to Sun Weidong, the Chinese Ambassador to India, accusing China of blocking several of India’s consignments due to which oxygen concentrators were unable to reach the country.
Noting Sood’s tweet, Weidong promised to do the “utmost” to support India’s fight against the virus and wrote: “To my knowledge, freight air routes from China to India are operating normally. The past two weeks have witnessed 61 freight flights from China to India in operation.”
He further tweeted that he had “provided convenience in customs clearance and transportation of medical supplies for India from cities in China” and will “ensure the smooth functioning of the export channel of materials to India.”
We are trying to get hundreds of oxygen concentrators to India. It's sad to say that China has blocked lots of our consignments and here in India we are losing lives every minute. I request @China_Amb_India @MFA_China to help us get our consignments cleared so we can save lives🇮🇳
— sonu sood (@SonuSood) May 1, 2021
From delivering injection via flight from one state to another to airlifting a critically ill 25-year-old patient who had lost 90% of her lungs from Nagpur to Hyderabad on Monday and another from Jhansi to Hyderabad on Tuesday, Sood has been labelled a “messiah”.
India has been battling the second wave of Covid-19 since March with thousands of people dying due to lack of oxygen supply in hospitals and inadequate beds, vaccines, medicines, cremation and burial spaces across the country. While the Central government has been denying the severity of the situation, Sood and his team have been working night and day attending SOS calls, arranging oxygen cylinders and medicines globally.
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Sood, who has primarily worked in the Hindi, Telugu and Tamil film industry, has been working for the underprivileged and arranging aid since 2020, when lockdown was imposed. From arranging transportation for migrant labourers to take them home safely, funding the education of underprivileged children, feeding thousands of migrants daily to arranging vaccines, medicines and beds.
In May 2020, Sonu airlifted 177 female migrant workers in Kerala back to their hometown in Odisha. Recently, he suggested the Centre to provide free education to children who lost their parents during the pandemic.
India has recorded 3, 48, 722 active coronavirus cases with 2, 26, 188 deaths as of Wednesday, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data.