The oxygen crisis took a heavy toll when 24 Covid patients died in Chamarajnagar, 175km away from Bengaluru, after the government district hospital ran out of oxygen supply on Sunday midnight.
The incident took place at a district hospital where at least 144 patients are being treated. The district officials have, however, denied the allegations that all the patients died due to oxygen shortage at the hospital.
A total of 250 oxygen cylinders were sent to the hospital from Mysore in the middle of the night as an emergency stock as the oxygen cylinders that were supposed to come from Ballari did not reach the hospital due to a delay in supply.
After the Chamarajanagar incident, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K. Sudhakar and Mysuru district in-charge minister Suresh Kumar rushed to the district to take stock of the situation. Kumar has ordered the hospital to conduct an internal audit to determine the cause of deaths.
Senior Doctor on what happened at hospital:
Explaining what happened at the Chamarajanagar hospital, a senior doctor said, between midnight and 2 am, patients who were on oxygen in the ICU began gasping for breath “after the pressure in the cylinders dropped”.
“Unfortunately, the hospital too had been facing an acute shortage of oxygen and the doctors could not provide the precious gas to the critical patients,” the doctor added.
A growing number of Covid cases, the doctor said, had put additional pressure on the administration and they had not received their supply on time.
Health Minister Sudhakar denied that patients died due to oxygen shortage:
Amid calls for his resignation over the deaths, state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar claimed that only three people at the district hospital had died due to the shortage of oxygen, and the rest had succumbed to Covid complications.
“Three of the patients died due to oxygen scarcity. The other deaths were due to other reasons. The government has ordered a probe and we will take action,” Dr Sudhakar said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, hit out at the state government over its handling of the crisis.
The All India Congress Committee general secretary and Karnataka in-charge, Randeep Singh Surjewala demanded the arrest of the Health Minister. “This is murder by designed negligence of Yediyurappa Govt ! The Health Minister must resign. Will CM Yediyurappa ji own moral responsibility for the deaths?” Mr Surjewala tweeted.
