Chennai, May 13 : Hospitals across Tamil Nadu and social organisations are running from pillar to post to get as many Oxygen cylinders as possible to save precious lives. They are also engineering ways to come up with easy and quick solution to spike the numbers, like converting CO2 cylinders for reuse. A group of college students led by Krishnapriya, who is a degree student in a prestigious college of Chennai has been scouting workshops, industrial units to get as many cylinders as possible so as to help patients maintain their oxygen level. Krishnapriya told IANS: "I came across an appeal in a social media platform that there is urgent need for oxygen cylinders in a private hospital here and hence called up classmates and have started scouting for cylinders." The group has already collected and provided 22 cylinders from various parts of Chennai and is knocking at the doors of Industrial units and even have spoken to CII to arrange meetings with industrial groups. In Madurai a group of doctors have already arranged 200 cylinders and have distributed them to various hospitals in the city and its suburbs. Dr Maniyappan, a general medicine physician with a private hospital in Madurai told IANS: "We need seven cubic metre cylinders and if the industries and engineering colleges require a deposit we are ready to fund but we need cylinders urgently. We have already sourced around 200 cylinders and are in the lookout for another 200 which is not that difficult a task but needs effort." If there are enough cylinders, many patients need not be given ventilator support and providing oxygen to a patient as long as he/she requires will help revive them. Engineers who are in safety engineering are of the opinion that almost all workshops will have a cylinder. Manoj Madhavan, an industrial engineer with an industrial unit at Guindy told IANS: "Even carbon dioxide cylinders can be pressed into service after a wash and change of valve and this will make it fit to carry oxygen." The possibilities of saving lives using oxygen cylinders scouted from industrial units, workshops and engineering colleges have given a fresh impetus to voluntary organisations and social workers to collect as many cylinders as possible to save lives. Mahesh Ramnarayanan, Director, Thanal, an NGO working for supporting homeless people told IANS: "We have approached engineering colleges across Tamil Nadu to provide Oxygen cylinders to the nearby hospitals in their towns and in their proximity so that it benefits people. Hope we get the maximum cylinders so that lives are saved." /IANS