Gaurav Rai

Meet Gaurav Rai AKA ‘Oxygen Man’, a 52 year old general manager in Patna, India, who turned his personal battle with COVID-19 into a live-saving mission for over 1,400 people by providing free oxygen tanks to critically ill patients.

In July 2020, Gaurav tested positive to COVID-19 and was rushed to his local hospital. Due to a shortage of beds and oxygen cylinders, he was left to wait beside the staircase of the ward, gasping for air. His wife Aruna took matters into her own hands and after five hours of searching, found an oxygen tank for her husband through a private connection. This was a turning point for Gaurav, “I realised how a small oxygen cylinder could save a life. I told my wife that I would pay it forward if I survived.”

While recovering at home, Gaurav and his wife pooled their savings to buy ten oxygen cylinders and launched an oxygen bank from their basement. Gaurav would wake every day at 5.30am, load the oxygen cylinders into his own car and deliver them to patients across the city. When cases continued to spike, the couple purchased more cylinders. However, thanks to social media, news of their small endeavour started to spread, and donations began to pour in.

Today Gaurav’s oxygen bank has over 200 cylinders and has extended across 18 districts of Bihar. Unable to personally deliver to the growing demand, Gaurav requests people collect the cylinders from his house, but he always keeps a few spares in his car for emergencies. Without a single day’s rest or any financial gain, Gaurav celebrates the recovery of each person he helps with a cake.

There’s a twist in Gaurav’s story,. In December 2019 an infection paralysed his vocal cord, and unable to speak, he felt so lost that he contemplated suicide. An unintended side effect of his COVID-19 battle seven months later was that it restored his voice and gave him a new purpose in life. “I told my wife if God makes me survive, I will do something for mankind. I was cured in a few days, and it seemed that The Almighty indeed chose this task for me."