Five patients die at Gurugram hospital due to ‘oxygen shortage’

Police deny charges made by family; hospital authorities yet to respond

Published - May 02, 2021 01:05 am IST - GURUGRAM

Family members of COVID-19 patients wait to refill oxygen cylinders in Gurugram on Saturday.

Family members of COVID-19 patients wait to refill oxygen cylinders in Gurugram on Saturday.

Five COVID-19 patients died at a private hospital here in Sector 56 in the early hours of Saturday. The family members of the deceased alleged that the deaths were caused due to short supply of oxygen and negligence of the doctors.

‘Doctors fled hospital’

The police, however, denied the allegations of short supply of oxygen, saying that oxygen was supplied to the hospital in a tanker on Friday night and again on Saturday morning. Repeated calls and messages to Deputy Commissioner Yash Garg to seek his response on the allegations went unanswered. The hospital authorities too did not respond to the calls.

The family members of the deceased told a local news channel that the doctors fled the hospital after the situation went out of hand and they had to call the police.

Later, the police arranged for doctors but five patients had died till then. They alleged that the doctors kept them in the dark about oxygen shortage.

One of the attendants, who lost two family members, said that he arranged three oxygen cylinders for his patients, but they could not be saved.

Kaustav Ritwik, who lost his grandmother in the incident, in a tweet said the doctors left the building when they came to know that nothing could be done. “They should have informed us in priority. We could have arranged for O2 on our own! [sic]”, said the tweet. He also shared a few videos of the incident featuring the families of the patients and the police.

Four patients had died due to alleged short supply of oxygen at a private hospital in Gurugram a week ago. The administration had set up a committee to probe the matter.

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