DALLAS — A software developer based out of Dallas has put an innovative idea, first researched by a Stanford professor, into use in his community. Dozens of donated CPAP and BiPAP machines that are no longer in use have been making their way to Sanjay Jupudi and his team at Qentelli.
"The way I live my life is to create things, and this fits perfectly into that," says Jupudi. "It doesn't do anything to profit me or our business, but the world is suffering through the pandemic and we can't turn a blind eye and say, 'Oh let them suffer.'"
Jupudi has been able to reconfigure old CPAPs into ventilators for hospitals still lacking proper equipment. His mission is to get 1,000 ventilators to rural hospitals in his home country of India, and so far he's been able to ship more than 100.
"I was talking to my friend, he said in a small town of 120,000 people there were 500 cases just yesterday," says Jupudi.
More than 30 million people have been able to recover from COVID-19 in India, but the death toll is still on the rise due to the delta variant. More than 410,000 people have passed so far due to COVID-19 in India.
To help try and put a stall on the staggering death toll, teams of volunteers from around the country like Jupudi are starting grassroots movements for donation drives. In the Dallas area, Jupudi has been able to setup four drop-off locations for people who want to assist.
Drop-off locations:
- Qentelli: 14241 Dallas Parkway, Suite 540, Dallas, Texas 75254 | https://tinyurl.com/QentelliTexas
- Frisco Badminton: 6226 All Stars Ave, Frisco, TX 75034, USA | https://tinyurl.com/FriscoBadminton
- Desi District (Irving): 6451 Riverside Dr, Suite #100, Irving, TX 75039, USA | https://tinyurl.com/DDIrving
- Desi District (Frisco): 1630 FM 423 #100, Frisco, TX 75034 | https://tinyurl.com/DDFrisco
"I had recently lost my husband and he had a CPAP machine, and I asked my sister if she knew someone from church that may use the machine," exclaims Pam Polito, who dropped off a no longer in use machine.
The reconfiguration of the sleeping machines into ventilators costs Jupudi about 50 dollars each. It's a huge savings in comparison to the cost of a ventilator that costs thousands of dollars.
"Each CPAP can be used for at least 10-15 people for a two to three month period," explains Jupudi.
To learn more about Qentelli's CPAPs and BiPAP donation drive, you can visit their site here.