The Moradabad administration on Thursday launched a probe to find out the exact cause of death of six patients at a private hospital after their relatives alleged that they had died due to the shortage of oxygen.
While the relative of one of the dead patients claimed that 16-17 persons on oxygen support had died due to disruption in oxygen supply after 3 a.m. on Thursday, the administration maintained that there was no shortage of oxygen at the hospital and that only six persons had died during the said period.
Rajat Kumar Singh, a scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation, alleged that his father had died at the Bright Star Hospital due to shortage of oxygen. Mr. Singh claimed that when he went to the hospital at 7.30 a.m. to serve his father breakfast, he found the elder missing from the ward to which he had been admitted. Mr. Singh said he found his father in the ICU and he was already dead by then.
“The nurses told me that around 3-4 a.m., the oxygen pressure in the pipeline was almost zero,” Mr. Singh told The Hindu .
Mr. Singh said that doctors had earlier informed him that his father was no longer in a critical state and that he was recovering. His oxygen saturation levels were also fine at 85-100, he added, alleging that the death occurred due to negligence.
Mr. Singh also wrote to the District Magistrate complaining about the incident and enclosed signatures of 17 other persons whose kin also died at the hospital allegedly due to oxygen shortage.
Nobody informed the relatives about the shortage of oxygen, he said.
Mr. Singh could not verify the nature of death for each of the patients.
Indrapal lost his brother and alleged that he too had died due to shortage of oxygen. Talking to mediapersons outside the hospital, Mr. Indrapal said his brother’s oxygen level had been at 80-85 and that he had been fine at 10 p.m. on the night before the death. “Other 12-15 persons also died,” he claimed.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate Moradabad Prashant Tiwari said that an inspection had found that the hospital had sufficient oxygen supply and that the deaths had not occured occur due to any scarcity. The administration was, however, conducting a death audit on the six patients who died in the hospital after 3 a.m.
So far, the audit has revealed that three patients had COVID-19 pneumonia while one had pulmonary fibrosis and another interstitial lung disease, he said.
“Oxygen supply is not an issue,” he said. When the administration inspected the hospital at 10.30 a.m., they found it had a 1,000-litre capsule of internal gas supply and one of the same capacity kept as back-up along with 25 D-type cylinders, the SDM said.
If there had been a shortage of oxygen at the 107-bed hospital, many other patients would have died, he argued. Asked about the list of 17 handed over to the administration by Mr. Singh, the SDM said the others had died on previous days.
Additional Director Health Moradabad Vineet Shukla said an inspection found there was no shortage of oxygen at the hospital. The hospital has 40 ICU beds and “very serious” patients got admitted there, he said.
