The National Force of SUS, summoned by the Minister of Health to work in Manaus, detected the evolution of the oxygen scarcity crisis in the city and recorded in official reports what it found in hospitals. Documents on 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13 of January show in detail the size of the problem, including an exact forecast of when the collapse would occur.
Even so, the Ministry of Health sent Manaus lower amounts of oxygen than were needed to avoid chaos in the care network for patients with Covid-19 on January 14. People died of asphyxiation in hospitals.
The SUS National Force reports show the moment when the oxygen went to the reserve in hospitals; the practice of medical teams not measuring the saturation of patients, so as to avoid detecting the need for oxygen supply, which was already scarce at that time; and the impediment of opening new beds in the federal university hospital due to lack of oxygen.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon