‘Found son dead when I returned with his medicine’

LUCKNOW: Deep Chand had stepped out to buy medicines for his 10-day-old son, admitted to the neonatal ward of the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur. By the time he returned, about half-anhour later on Friday, the baby was dead.

Deep Chand was among many grief-stricken parents caught in a nightmare as child after child died at the government-run hospital over the past few days, most of them allegedly due to lack of oxygen.

At least 60 children died over seven days at the hospital in chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s constituency, 30 of them after a private contractor allegedly stopped oxygen supply over payment.

Though the government has denied oxygen shortage, parents and eyewitness accounts show how the situation spiraled out of control since Thursday.

“Since morning we were hearing that children were dying because of lack of oxygen. (But) we didn’t know that we too will lose our child,” said Saroj Devi, whose seven-year-old daughter Jyoti was among the dead.

“No one other than the doctors are responsible for the deaths,” she added.

Jyoti was admitted to the 100bed children’s ward on Tuesday with high fever and vomiting.

Mohammad Zahid and his wife Amaira’s seven-month-old daughter’s was still alive but they they were not sure if she would survive the crisis.

The scene at the hospital was both tragic and chaotic as grieving parents carried the bodies of children in their arms and anxious relatives tried to locate doctors as their children lay gasping for breath.

Deep Chand was in a state of shock.

“I found my son dead when I returned with bottles of blood and medicine. The doctors simply said my son was no more. I could not understand how he died so soon,” he said.

Most of the parents said the doctors did not allow them to see their ailing children and even misbehaved with them.

“Doctors are even slapping patients when they try to meet their children.You can take out CCTV recordings to check it,” said Mrityunjay, whose premature baby was admitted at the hospital.

“Patients are asked to purchase about 90% of medicines from the market. Officials and staff do not listen to patients and keep on playing game on the computers,” he said.