15 more deaths linked to oxygen shortage in Goa

PANAJI: Two days after 26 patients lost their lives at Goa’s premier government-run hospital due to lack of oxygen between 2am and 6am, the Pramod Sawant government on Thursday told the Bombay high court that 15 more patients died on Thursday morning, even as he tried to convince the court that all these deaths could not be attributed to the disruption in oxygen supply.

The judges, who had reprimanded the state government for not ensuring steady oxygen supply just a day earlier, however, didn’t buy the hospital’s defence on Thursday.

“Statistics show that the deaths are happening due to a lack of oxygen. Do not try to deny the fact,” the high court’s Goa bench of justices MS Sonak and Nitin Jambre told the state.