Oxygen shortage and fire at different hospitals claimed at least 95 Covid-19 patients in different states of India. Twenty four patients died at a government hospital in Karnataka's Chamarajanagar on Sunday after the oxygen supply dropped, officials said. “The deaths were reported after there was a fall in oxygen supply between 12 am to 2 am on Sunday night," a senior official at the hospital said. At least 144 patients are being treated at the hospital, he added.
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has spoken to the district collector about the incident and called an emergency Cabinet meeting. State Home Minister Basavaraja Bommai, meanwhile, has asked the DGP-IGP Praveen Sood to investigate the matter and submit a comprehensive report for further action.
16 die in Andhra
In two separate incidents, 16 Covid-19 patients died for want of oxygen supply in Anantapur and Kurnool cities in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday. While 11patients died at the Covid-19 ward of Anantapur government general hospital reportedly due to low pressure in oxygen pipeline, five others died at a private hospital in Kurnool. According to Anantapur joint collector Nishanth Kumar, 21 Covid-19 patients died at the Anantapur GGH since Friday due to “various reasons”. He, however, did not elaborate what the “various reasons” are. But, the relatives of the deceased said that doctors themselves confirmed that there was a low pressure in the oxygen supply system, which resulted in the high mortality. GGH doctors maintained during interaction with local mediapersons that there were some technical glitches in the oxygen supply system which are being rectified by a technical team from Chennai.
Six die in Gurgaon hospital
Tragedy struck a Gurgaon hospital for the second time in less than a week as six Covid-19 patients who were on oxygen support died on Friday night. The patients’ families alleged the hospital had run out of oxygen and the patients had simply been “abandoned”. There is no official report yet into the cause of the deaths. Deputy commissioner Yash Garg has ordered a probe, which is under way.
Kriti Hospital in Sector 56, where the six patients were admitted, is a 40-bed facility but not among the 43 hospitals designated for treatment of Covid-19 patients by the state government. Family members of the patients alleged doctors left the hospitals as soon as they came to know the situation “was out of their hands”.
12 die in Delhi hospital
Just a week after 20 critically ill Covid-19 patients died at Jaipur Golden Hospital in the New Delhi because of lack of oxygen, at least 12 Covid patients, including a senior doctor, died due to the same reason at Batra Hospital in Delhi on Saturday. Confirming this, Dr S C L Gupta, medical director of the hospital, said: “They could have been saved.” The city has been gasping for oxygen for a week now and the crisis seems to have only deepened.
The 500-bed hospital had around 326 Covid-19 patients. Of these, according to the medical director, 220 were on high-flow nasal oxygen while 48 were in the ICU requiring bipap and ventilator support when the supply was disrupted. “Six patients in the ICU, including one of our own doctors died while we were struggling to get the oxygen supply restored. Two other patients admitted in the wards also died,” said Dr Gupta. There were at least four others whom we managed to resuscitate but they died of the complications caused by oxygen shortage minutes later,” said Dr Gupta.
15 die in Moradabad
Families of at least 15 Covid-19 patients who died within 24 hours at a private hospital in UP’s Moradabad said it was because the facility ran out of oxygen. The hospital denied the charge and said the patients were critical and died due to “health complications”. Kin of the patients sent a signed letter to the district magistrate (DM) demanding a probe and action. They alleged that they were told in the morning by a staff nurse that oxygen supply was interrupted, which then led to the deaths. They also alleged that doctors had “run away from the hospital”. Dr CP Singh, director of Bright Star Hospital, New Moradabad, said, “11 patients have died in the last 24 hours at the hospital. Those who died were critical patients of Covid-19 and passed away during treatment.”
Fire at Bharuch hospital: 18 die
Eighteen people- 16 coronavirus patients and two intern nurses - perished in a massive fire that broke out in the ICU of a Covid-19 hospital run by a private trust in the industrial town of Bharuch in Gujarat. While some of them got charred to death, others died of asphyxiation when the fire broke out in Welfare Hospital on Bharuch-Jambusar Road.
According to sources, the fire started from the ventilators. The hospital run by Bombay Welfare Trust has been functional since 1995, but the building where the accident occurred was unused and refurbished last year for Covid-19 treatment. There were 57 Covid patients in all, including 23 in the general ward and 12 each in two ICUs. Forty-one patients were shifted to various other hospitals in Bharuch and nearby towns.
4 die in Thane
The spate of hospital fires continued in Maharashtra with four critically ill patients admitted to a Mumbra-based private hospital dying while being wheeled out amid dense fumes that engulfed the structure following a short-circuit in the main electric panel, Thane municipal officials said. Just last week, 15 patients had died at the Vijay Vallabh hospital in Virar after a fire broke out there. Twenty non-Covid patients were being treated at the Prime Criticare hospital in Kausa area, including six in the intensive care unit. The patients were pulled out without any burns but the four who died had possibly inhaled fumes, a civic official said.
