India’s Dead Due To Lack Of Oxygen In Hospitals: Know Where & When?

By OB Bureau On Apr 24, 2021

New Delhi: Despite supplies from every resource possible, the country continues to scramble for every cylinder of oxygen. Meanwhile, many people have lost their lives in the past few days because the hospital in which they were admitted ran short of oxygen supply.

Here is how many people died in the country’s hospitals due to lack of oxygen:

Delhi, Jaipur Golden Hospital, 25: Twenty-five people admitted in critical care died on April 23 due to a shortage of medical oxygen, a top official at the hospital. “We had been allotted 3.5 metric tons of oxygen from the government. The supply was to reach us by 5 in the evening, but it reached around midnight. By then, 25 patients had died,” Dr. DK Baluja, Medical Director at Jaipur Golden Hospital, told NDTV.

Madhya Pradesh, Jaya Arogya Hospital, Gwalior, 7: After a private hospital in Jabalpur reported five deaths due to alleged scarcity of medical oxygen, state-run Jaya Arogya Hospital witnessed two mortalities for similar reasons in the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

Punjab, Neel Kant Hospital, Amritsar, 5: Six patients, five of them infected by coronavirus, died allegedly due to a shortage of medical oxygen late Friday night. The dead include two women. The authorities at Neel Kant hospital claimed they had appraised the district administration about the oxygen shortage two days back and also the families of the patients about the shortage of oxygen and had requested them to shift the patients to other hospitals.

Delhi, Ganga Ram Hospital, 25: Sir Ganga Ram Hospital sent out a desperate cry for help saying 25 of its sickest COVID-19 patients have died in the past 24 hours. The hospital medical director said on Thursday morning, “25 sickest patients have died in the past 24 hrs at the hospital. Oxygen will last another 2 hours.”

The hospital also said it needed oxygen to be airlifted urgently, but its top officers contradicted each other on whether the deaths, all of the critical COVID patients, were because of oxygen shortage. “Low oxygen concentration likely contributed to deaths of critical patients. Critical patients need high pressure, stable oxygen supply,” Satendra Katoch, Medical Director, told NDTV.

But the hospital’s chairman said while there had indeed been a large number of deaths in 24 hours for the first time, they could not be linked to oxygen shortage.

“I would not ascribe the deaths to oxygen shortage. A large number of patients are in serious condition in hospital. But we are facing severe oxygen shortage,” chairman DS Rana told NDTV.