Two Meerut hospitals admit oxygen crisis led to nine deaths

MEERUT: At least nine Covid-19 patients died in two hospitals of Meerut in past two days because of shortage of oxygen.

Speaking to media persons, the administrative officials of both the hospitals admitted that these patients could have been saved had there been proper supply of oxygen.

Anand Hospital is a private hospital where 173 patients were undergoing treatment on Monday night when shortage of oxygen was reported to the district administration.

The officials managed to shift 10 critical patients who were requiring high flow of oxygen and also managed to provide few oxygen cylinders to maintain oxygen supply in hospital.

Speaking to a reporter of a TV channel, Dr Subhash Yadav of the hospital shared that hospital is facing shortage of oxygen as it requires 400 cylinders and getting only 90 cylinders.

“Under such circumstances they have shifted critical patients to other hospitals, but three patients succumbed due to shortage of oxygen,” he told media.

Dr Sunil Gupta of KMC hospital also shared that hospitals in Meerut went through a tough time on Monday night due to shortage of oxygen. He said that 3 to 4 patients died in his hospital on Monday and shortage of oxygen was an important reason behind it. He also said that 2 or 3 patients of his hospital could also be saved on Sunday with proper supply of oxygen. He accepted all these on camera but the staff who picked the phone later denied that deaths in his hospital took place due to shortage of oxygen. She, however, refused to connect to Dr Sunil Gupta.

Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Dr Akhilesh Mohan said that hospitals had not given any report about death of patients due to shortage of oxygen.

He accepted that there was shortage of oxygen but everything possible was being done to maintain adequate supply.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders had written letter to chief minister and other senior leaders about shortage of oxygen, beds and drugs.