60 children die as hospital oxygen cut off

At least 60 children have died at a hospital in northern India, officials say, amid allegations that the oxygen supply was cut over unpaid bills.

Officials in Uttar Pradesh state admitted the supply had been disrupted but claimed this did not cause the deaths. There was panic at the hospital with relatives trying to support staff using manual breathing bags.

The deaths occurred over a five-day period from last Monday at the Baba Raghav Das hospital in Gorakhpur district. Parents said the oxygen supply to the ward ran out last Thursday night and that patients’ families were given self-inflating bags to help the children breathe.

“That’s the time when the death of the children peaked,” said one man, whose seven-month-old son was admitted to the hospital and was not among the dead.

The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered an investigation. A district official recognised there was a “payment issue” with the supplier, but said the deaths could have been caused by “natural” causes as many patients were admitted in a “serious” condition.

Some of the children had been treated for encephalitis, a disease that is rampant in the state during the monsoon season, which runs from June until September.