Batra Hospital Gastroenterology HoD succumbs to oxygen scarcity
New Delhi: Unable to secure the oxygen within the stipulated time despite approaching the authorities and sending SOS messages, Batra Hospital in the national capital has lost 12 patients including one of its senior doctors on Saturday after the hospital suddenly ran out of oxygen stocks.
Among the deceased, 6 were undergoing treatment in the ICU.
Intervening, the Delhi High Court directed the Centre to provide the city with oxygen immediately or face contempt.
Besides Batra Hospital, at least two other hospitals including Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj and Sehgal Neo hospital in Meera Bagh also reported precipitous drops in their oxygen stocks.
Speaking to the media, Dr SCL Gupta, Medical Director, Batra Hospital stated that among those who died due to the lack of oxygen were Dr R K Himthani, head of the gastroenterology department who had been admitted to the hospital for the last 15-20 days. He said the government had sent out SOS messages about oxygen shortage on Saturday. The hospital had informed authorities about lack of oxygen in the morning when only 2,500 litres were left, reports PTI.
At around 12.30 pm, hospital authorities claimed that they had run out of oxygen but the tanker arrived at 1.35 pm, and almost for 1 hour the hospital was cut off from the oxygen supply after which 12 patients passed away in the facility. With the death of the 12 patients in the Delhi-based hospital, the number of hospital patients who have lost their lives in the deepening crisis in the last eight days has gone up to 57.
"It's a matter of great concern that people are dying due to lack of oxygen in the Capital of the country. I can only imagine the plight in other places. Authorities must take steps to improves the conditions or more lives may be lost", added Dr Gupta.
Taking cognizance of the prevailing crisis, a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli stated, "Water has gone above the head. Now we mean business. Enough is enough" and asked the Centre to supply 490 metric tonnes of allocated oxygen to the national capital.
"Do you mean we will shut our eyes to people dying in Delhi?" the bench asked when the Centre's counsel said the oxygen crisis is also before the Supreme Court, which will make its order public on Saturday. It also declined the Centre's request to defer the order - till Monday or for half an hour. The tough-talking court said the Centre has made an allocation of 490 metric tonnes of oxygen to Delhi and stated, "You fulfil it".
According to PTI, Fortis Hospital in Vasant Kunj stopped taking admissions due to oxygen shortage. The hospital has four hours of oxygen left, sources told on Saturday afternoon.
As per the Delhi Corona app, the hospital has 106 Covid patients. Sehgal Neo hospital in Meera Bagh also sent out an SOS message on Twitter about its dwindling oxygen stocks. "We request urgent assistance in getting #SOS oxygen. We are running out of our backup supply, and have been waiting for a supply since early morning. We have 90 patients on O2 & 13 in ICU," the hospital said in a tweet around 12.40 pm.
Just a few weeks ago on April 23, 25 "sickest" patients died at the Ganga Ram hospital. The next day, 20 died at Jaipur Golden Hospital as the frantic hunt for oxygen continued while COVID-19 cases surged and now the hospitals are in soup as there remained a marked scarcity of oxygen while the number of COVID cases keeps on increasing.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed his anguish on Twitter. Describing the news as very painful, he said, " Their lives could have been saved -- by giving them oxygen on time. Delhi should get its quota of oxygen. Can't see our people dying like this." He further added that Delhi needs 976 tonnes of oxygen but has received only 312 tonnes on Friday. "How will Delhi breathe in such low oxygen?" he asked following news of the deaths in Batra.
On Friday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had also stated that not for a single day has Delhi been able to receive the allocated quantity of 490 MT of oxygen. Meanwhile, responding to the SOS message of Batra Hospital, he had tweeted, "Our SOS cryogenic tanker carrying Liquid Medical Oxygen is reaching Batra Hospital within 5 minutes. Their regular supplier of oxygen has defaulted yet again due to alleged 'lack of oxygen supplies' and is being pulled up."
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