20 die in 1 hospital, Delhi begs for O2

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 24

India grappled with an unprecedented public health crisis on Saturday as critical Covid patients died across cities for want of oxygen, hospitals begged for supplies and several Delhi facilities halted admissions in the absence of life-saving O2 amid a tsunami of infections.

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The situation across hospitals was worrisome with 20 critical patients dying overnight at Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi where half an hour supply was left this morning and replenishments were delayed. After another world record setting peak of today, the Centre asked the country to be ready for the worst. The signs of things to come were evident today after even AIIMS-New Delhi, India’s topmost central hospital, had to shut down its emergency for an hour to reorganise oxygen pipelines for 100 critical patients as demands surged. The admissions were later resumed.

Several Delhi hospitals, including Fortis Healthcare and Gangaram, said they would halt fresh patient intake if oxygen supplies did not stabilise.

At Gangaram hospital, 29 patients on invasive ventilation and in need of high flow oxygen were manually ventilated all night after O2 stocks dried up. The hospital lost 25 patients yesterday amid oxygen crisis.

“Our supplier INOX has reneged on commitments. For invasive ventilation, the reservoir should be 3,000 cubic meters. We are getting supplies of 500 to 1,500 cubic meters only. We have 516 Covid patients; 129 in ICU and 29 on invasive ventilation. The 29 patients were ventilated manually, but now the staff is exhausted. This cannot go on for long. Anything can happen,” Gangaram chairman DS Rana said, noting that the government couldn’t force hospitals to admit more patients when oxygen for those already hospitalised remained inadequate.

“How can we work like this?” asked Rana with Max Healthcare also tweeting today about two-hour oxygen supply left.

The story being similar across most hospitals, the Centre attributed supply delays to the inability of the Delhi Government to arrange cryogenic tankers for transport, saying other states were arranging the equipment.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also wrote to his counterparts for assistance. “If you have spare oxygen, please help us,” he urged other CMs in a letter.