Children die after oxygen cut off

Annie Gowen

One by one, the infants and children slipped away, their parents watching helplessly as oxygen supplies at the government hospital ran low.

At least 30 children died on Friday and into Saturday at a hospital in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after its supply of liquid oxygen was disrupted over an unpaid bill, officials said.

A Home Ministry spokesman told the Press Trust of India, citing police reports, that 21 of the deaths were directly linked a shortage of oxygen.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene as medical practitioners and relatives handed out manual resuscitator bags to families in a desperate attempt to save the young patients.

“We saw children dying around us,” said the father of one victim, who gave his name only as Vijay. “Obviously, it’s the hospital’s fault. So many children have died because of them. My son was fine until night-time, then something wrong happened.”

Two more children died on Saturday at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur, an impoverished area in the eastern part of the state, as authorities scrambled to firm up supplementary supplies and investigate the tragedy. The Government suspended the medical college principal.

The state’s health minister and hospital officials have denied charges that the deaths were caused by the oxygen bill dispute. An estimated 60 children have died at the hospital since August 7 from a variety of causes, officials said.

The state’s Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, called the tragedy despicable and said the state had set up a committee to investigate the role of the oxygen vendor. “The idea is devastating — that she had to suffer while trying to breathe,” said Manger Rajbhar, the father of a 5-day-old girl who died in the chaos.

The deaths provoked widespread outrage and condemnation across the political spectrum and on social media. “Thirty kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. It’s a massacre,” Indian Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi, a child advocate, said in a tweet.

The hospital owed US$89,750 to a Lucknow-based medical supply company called Pushpa Sales Private Limited, documents show, and the firm had written letters to the hospital and district magistrate for the past six months demanding payment. The agreement expired on July 31, and Pushpa discontinued the oxygen supply on August 4.— Washington Post