Covid-19: Eight Patients Died in Delhi Hospital for Want of Oxygen, High Court Take Centre to Task

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, May 1: As for the first time the new Corona cases crossed four lakh mark on Saturday, eight Covid patients admitted in the ICU of Batra hospital in Mehrauli locality in Delhi died on Saturday afternoon with hospital authorities linking the casualties to shortage of oxygen. Among the deceased was the hospital’s gastroenteritis head Dr R K Himthani (62).

Asked whether the deaths took place when the low oxygen supply in the ICU had dropped, Dr SCL Gupta, the hospital’s medical director, said, “Of course… If the hospital will run without oxygen for half an hour… Eight Covid patients have been declared dead so far… There are five others who are in the process of resuscitation. They are critical.”

The hospital had 327 patients out of which 48 are in the critical care unit. It has been raising alarms since Saturday afternoon over depleting levels of oxygen supply. Around 12.30 pm, the hospital claimed it had run out of liquid medical oxygen supply. An oxygen tanker reached the hospital around 1.35 pm.

Earlier this month, 20 people admitted in the critical care unit of Jaipur Golden hospital in Rohini died when oxygen levels dropped. The hospital had, before the Delhi High Court, blamed the Delhi government for the delay in oxygen reaching them.

The news of eight deaths in Batra hospital irked the Delhi High Court which was hearing a Public Interest Litigation on the oxygen shortage in the Delhi hospitals. “Hospitals in the national capital must be given their full quota of medical oxygen today “by whatever means”, the Delhi High Court told the centre as it heard petitions on how the health infrastructure is trying to cope with the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Water has gone above the head. You have to arrange everything now. You have made the allocations. You have to fulfil it. Eight lives have been lost. We can’t shut our eyes to it,” the high court said referring to the Batra hospital casualty after the oxygen supply stopped for over 80 minutes.

The court also said that the national capital is not an industrial state and does not have availability of cryogenic tankers which could be requisitioned under Disaster Management Act like other states. It falls on the central government to arrange the tankers, said the court, adding that not for a single day has Delhi received complete supply.

“We direct the centre to ensure that Delhi receives its 490 tonnes (of medical oxygen) today by whatever means. It falls on the centre to arrange tankers as well. The allocation was made on April 20 and not even one day Delhi has received its allocated supply. If this is not implemented, we may even consider initiating contempt proceedings,” the high court said.

The court declined the centre’s request to adjourn the hearing till Monday when its officers would explain the situation. In case the order is not implemented, the court said, the concerned Secretary of the central government ministry will remain present during the next hearing. “No one is asking for more than allocated. If you can’t supply the allocation today, we will see your explanation on Monday,” the high court said. “Given the situation, we may even consider initiating contempt proceedings in case of non-compliance,” the court warned..

The Delhi government earlier told the court that the situation pertaining to the supply of oxygen has worsened as there has been no or minimal supply from plants of Linde, INOX and Air Liquide today. The government said it has been receiving SOS calls from the hospitals.

India on Saturday reported over 4,00,000 fresh Covid-19 cases for the first time as the tally crossed 19 million-mark, according to Union health ministry’s data. With 4,019, 93 fresh cases, India”s Covid-19 tally has risen to 19,164,969. The country also recorded 3,523 deaths on Friday, including 870 in Maharashtra, 375 in Delhi, 332 in Uttar Pradesh, and 269 in Chhattisgarh.

Meanwhile, the government has included import of oxygen concentrators for personal use, through post, courier or e-commerce portals, in the list of exempted categories, where Customs clearance is sought as ”gifts”. This exemption is valid till July 31.