12 patients at the district Covid Hospital in Chamarajanagar Town in Karnataka have died due to lack of oxygen supply, 11 others patients at the hospital have died due to other reasons, taking the death toll to 23 there.
Deccan Herald mentioned Chamarajanagar’s Deputy Collector Dr.M.R.Ravi saying “A total of 24 deaths have happened between Sunday morning and Monday morning. While 23 have died in the district hosptial, one person has died at a private facility. We can not say that all patients have died due to lack of oxygen.”
While the hospital’ staff maintain that only 12 died due to oxygen shortage, locals alleged that death due to oxygen scarcity is more than that. They said that even non-covid patients had faced short supply of the critical gas that resulted in their deaths.
The 6,000-litre capacity oxygen plant at the hospital is capable of supporting oxygen needs for 1.5 days, and it diminished in Sunday evening.
A staff at the hospital said that the District Administration was alerted on Sunday evening about the grave threat that the hospital could face when the hospital took note of the low oxygen storage in its system but nothing was done to increase the supply at that time, reported TOI.
Majority of the patients who succumbed due to this oxygen crisis were in their 30s and 40s. S Suresh Kumar, District in-charge minister said “Every life is precious and any death brings us intense grief. We have sought a report on the deaths and the audit report is likely to come by today afternoon. We will initiate action against whoever is responsible for this”.
Recently in Delhi’s Batra Hospital 8 patients including 1 doctor died due to oxygen supply shortage. Also, 25 patients who were in the critical care unit of Jaipur Golden hospital in Rohini, Delhi, died due to lack of this essential gas.
Deaths due to inadequate supply of oxygen has increased in different parts of the country during this second wave.