5 Covid patients die in Hisar hospital; families allege oxygen shortage

Deepender Deswal
Tribune News Service
Hisar, April 26

A desperate plea from a Hisar hospital in the small hours of Monday morning sent district officials scurrying a nearby oxygen plant.

“Patients on ventilator will die because of delay in oxygen supply,” the text on Whatsapp said.  “Only 30 minutes of oxygen left.”

The SOS made district administration swing into action—two officials were at a plant within 10 minutes.  Even all their hurry could not guarantee timely supply—40 minutes after the said text, while a hospital vehicle waited in vain for critical oxygen, four patients breathed their last. A fifth died 30 minutes later.

The cause for such delay? A snag, forcing the plant to close down for two hours and wasting precious time.

According to sources, the oxygen manufacturing plant developed snag and remained close for nearly two hours, leading to the delay in supply to the hospital.

One of the patients was from Punjab’s Mansa, another from Delhi, and three from Hisar.  Angry and inconsolable, their families blamed the delay on the hospital and district officials. As they gathered outside the hospital in protest, local police were dispatched in heavy numbers to prevent any escalation.

Manoj, brother of one of the victims, said he’d pleaded with the hospital and even managed to find one in another hospital. But even that proved in vain—by then, his 43-year-old brother was counting his last breaths.  The hospital charges, he said, were exorbitant—Rs 25,000-30,000 a day.

He claimed the hospital charged Rs 25,000 for getting remdesivir injections—a scarce commodity that remains one of the most sought-after drugs in India during the pandemic despite international experts having discredited it for no proven record of being effective against the deadly coronavirus—from the black market.

“We are being fleeced. We pay through our noses to ensure the hospital guarantees the lives of loved ones. And then this happens. This is negligence,” a patient’s relative said as protesters gathered outside the hospital.

The hospital however denies any willful negligence on its part.

“We’ve been asking the district administration for oxygen,” said Dr Rajat Soni, who was authorised to speak on behalf of the hospital. “We kept a vehicle waiting outside the plant. I kept the district administration updated on the condition of my patients.” He claimed he even accompanied a patient’s relative to another hospital to find a cylinder.

The district authorities also deny they had any role in the delay, blaming the hospital for neglecting to alert them in time about oxygen shortage.

Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Soni ordered a magisterial inquiry into what caused the deaths and also referred the case to the District Medical Board for Negligence for an investigation into possible negligence on the part of the hospital.

She said: “We have three oxygen suppliers in the district. Had that hospital rang us up, we would have provided the supply”.