15 more patients die at Goa hospital
GOA 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 also but 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’s top law officer, advocate general Devidas Pangam.
“We are aware that the issue is not sorted out yet,” the bench said.
The 15 deaths at the Goa Medical College and Hospital come just two days after 26 people lost their lives due to shortthe age of oxygen at the same hospital, prompting the judges to order the Pramod Sawant government to drop everything and ensure that there are no deaths “at least one night”.
At a high court’s hearing on Thursday morning, the Goa Medical College acknowledged that 15 more deaths had taken place between 2am and 6am but insisted that not all of them died because of disruption in oxygen supply as was being claimed by the petitioners.
Shruti Chaturvedi, who has set up the Goa Covid network of volunteers and is one of the petitioners, had earlier tweeted news about the 15 deaths.
“Despite raising SOSES, police and health dept officials reaching GMC in the wee hours of the night after the alarm of oxygen fluctuations in the central pipeline was raised, 15 people died last night. Again.”
Relatives of patients did raise an alarm after the oxygen pressure began to drop overnight and health department officials and the police reached the hospital to help. But it was several hours before anyone was able to fix the problem and ensure a steady supply of oxygen.
The medical college’s dean Dr Shivanand Bandekar acknowledged that the oxygen pressure had dropped during night but claimed that not all the deaths could be attributed to it.
He said critical patients would be shifted out of wards that are receiving oxygen at low pressure to a newly-commissioned block where the oxygen supply is steady.
The deaths at the state-run hospital due to oxygen supply have come as a major embarrassment to the Pramod Sawant government, which has also been roundly criticised by opposition parties, civil society groups and at least one ruling party MLA for not doing enough.
On Wednesday, the high court also reminded the state government that it was its duty to ensure that people didn’t die due to its inability to supply oxygen. “This duty can neither be avoided by pleading helplessness nor by putting forth logistical difficulties in sourcing and supplying oxygen,” the high court said.
On Wednesday, the Goa medical college dean had spoken about how disruption in oxygen supply could claim lives and lead to organ failure, leading to deaths long after the oxygen supply is restored.