J&K orders inquiry into COVID-19 patient’s death at hospital ‘due to oxygen shortage’

Family members allege in video that the 59-year-old woman died because ‘the hospital could not provide her oxygen in time’.

May 02, 2021 03:13 pm | Updated 03:18 pm IST - Jammu

Workers carrying medical oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients at Govt Medical College Hospital in Jammu. File.

Workers carrying medical oxygen cylinders for COVID-19 patients at Govt Medical College Hospital in Jammu. File.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday ordered an inquiry into the death of a coronavirus-infected patient allegedly due to the lack of oxygen concentrators at a premiere hospital in Jammu.

Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Raghav Langar, has appointed the Financial Commissioner, Health, as an officer “to inquire into the circumstances leading to the death of the person at the Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital (ASCOMS).

The family members, in a video that went viral online on Saturday, alleged that Bita Kumari Kher, 59, died because “the hospital could not provide her oxygen in time.”

“The patient would have survived if the oxygen was provided in time,” they said.

The patient was admitted on April 14 at ASCOMS as a COVID-19 positive and turned negative on April 28.

“She, however, could not support herself on the atmospheric oxygen and had to continue with high flow oxygen even after turning negative. She had a massive cardiac pulmonary arrest on Saturday morning around 9.30 a.m. and passed away due to acute COVID pneumonia,” officials of the hospital said.

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