20 patients die overnight at Delhi hospital amid oxygen crisis

New Delhi, April 24

About 20 Covid patients died on Friday night at Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi due to low supply of oxygen. The hospital has appealed to the authority in the national capital to arrange oxygen at the earliest.

According to the hospital, "A supply of 3.5 metric tonnes of oxygen was supposed to reach by 5 p.m. yesterday. But it reached around midnight. By then, 20 patients had died."  MD of Dr D.K. Baluja tweeted on Saturday morning, "Jaipur Golden Hospital still waiting for oxygen. As many as 215 Covid patients are dependent on the hospital. Get supply ASAP. Please help, we are desperate."  Earlier, around 25 Covid-19 patients had died in the period of 24 hours in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH). It had raised an alarm for immediate need of oxygen supply on Thursday evening as over 140 critical patients admitted in the hospitals were on ventilators and on oxygen support.

Along with Jaipur Golden Hospital, Moolchand Hospital, SGRH, Batra Hospital, on Saturday, sent SOS messages reporting shortage of oxygen and appealed to authority to arrange it at the earliest.

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In the morning, Batra Hospital's Medical Director Dr SCL Gupta said that the hospital is left with oxygen for one hour for 350 patients. Later, 500 litre of oxygen was supplied to the hospital.

"We have received only 500 litre of oxygen after pleading for nearly 12 hours, which is also less than our daily requirement of 8,000 liters. We have 350 patients and it will get difficult treating them in absence of inadequate supply," Gupta told IANS.

Around 11 a.m., SGRH hospital claimed that it is left with the last 200 cubic oxygen which lasted for 15 minutes. IANS

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