India hospital notes deaths of 217 kids

LUCKNOW, India — Deaths continue to mount at a government hospital in north India that came under fire earlier this month after dozens of babies died within two days.

Dr. P.K. Singh, the head of the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur city, said Wednesday that at least 217 children died there in August alone from a variety of reasons, including an annual encephalitis outbreak. Singh added that 42 children died in the past 48 hours. Seven of the deaths were from encephalitis, while the others were attributed to other medical complications.

The hospital found itself in the middle of a media storm earlier this month when 33 children died there Aug. 10 and 11, about the same time as a disruption in the oxygen supply. A team of experts from New Delhi later said the interruption was not responsible for the deaths, but there was fury in India over how the hospital let oxygen run out.

Singh blamed the deaths on “seasonal infection.”

“There is no shortage of oxygen or medicine in the hospital,” Singh said. “Children died only because of medical complication — not because of medical negligence.”

Encephalitis causes many deaths in the area every year during the monsoon season.

Experts said that this year, fatalities from encephalitis are expected to be high because of excessive rains and flooding across eastern Uttar Pradesh, and particularly the area in and around Gorakhpur.

The city is 155 miles southeast of Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh.

Medical experts said the government continues to be taken by surprise and unprepared for what is now an annual cycle of disease and death.