At least 64 children have died over six days at a government hospital in northern India that suffered oxygen shortages, officials said Saturday.<\/p>\n
Authorities have launched an inquiry into the causes of the oxygen disruption but denied reports that it had caused the deaths at the Baba Raghav Das Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh state.<\/p>\n
Indian media said 30 children died on Thursday and Friday because of the lack of oxygen on wards. Suppliers\u2019 bills had allegedly not been paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cSixty patients have died at the hospital in the last five days but we don\u2019t think it\u2019s linked to reports of oxygen shortage,\u201d Anil Kumar, Gorakhpur\u2019s divisional commissioner told AFP.<\/p>\n
State health minister Sidharth Nath Singh announced later that four more deaths had been reported Saturday, taking the toll to 64 over the six days starting Monday.<\/p>\n
Singh denied that any of the deaths were linked to the oxygen shortage.<\/p>\n
Twenty-three children died on Thursday, when, according to a statement shared by the office of state chief minister, \u201cthe pressure of the liquid oxygen supply became low and 52 reserve oxygen cylinders were pressed into service\u201d.<\/p>\n
The office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter that Modi was \u201cmonitoring the situation in Gorakhpur\u201d and was in touch with state authorities. Modi\u2019s conservative nationalist party controls the state.<\/p>\n
\u2018All hell broke loose\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Hindustan Times newspaper on Saturday described chaotic scenes at the hospital as oxygen supply was disrupted.<\/p>\n \u201cEven as 90 jumbo oxygen cylinders were pressed into service to maintain the supply on Friday, the hospital ran out of oxygen around 1.00am,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n \u201cAll hell broke loose,\u201d the report added.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat followed was complete chaos as panic-stricken relatives of patients ran for help, and with the support of hospital staff tried to maintain supply of oxygen\u2026 using artificial manual breathing bags (AMBB).<\/p>\n \u201cHowever several patients started collapsing due to inadequate supply,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n One uncle of an 11-year-old girl, Vandana, who died at the hospital, echoed local media reports about the chaos.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what was happening at the time. The staff just told us to keep pressing AMBB after every count till three. We kept doing that for some time,\u201d he told ABP news channel.<\/p>\n The region is one of India\u2019s poorest and registers hundreds of child deaths each year from Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome, which is rife in parts of eastern and northern India.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be getting more liquid oxygen cylinders tonight or tomorrow, and have also cleared the dues of the supplier,\u201d district official Kumar told AFP.<\/p>\n He added that the deaths could be due to \u201cnatural\u201d causes, as many patients admitted are in \u201cserious\u201d condition.<\/p>\n India\u2019s Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, a campaigner for children\u2019s rights, described the deaths as \u201ca massacre\u201d on Twitter.<\/p>\n \u201cThirty kids died in hospital without oxygen. This is not a tragedy. It\u2019s a massacre. Is this what 70 years of freedom means for our children?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s health minister suspended the hospital\u2019s top official, holding him accountable for the oxygen supply until the completion of a formal investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reasons for the disruption of oxygen supply are being investigated but our probe has revealed that no deaths happened because of it,\u201d Singh told reporters after a visit to the hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you hear about around 23 deaths in a day, it shocks you, and it should,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the average daily death toll for the month of August (at the hospital) has been 19 to 22 for the last three years,\u201d the minister added.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At least 64 children have died over six days at a government hospital in northern India that suffered oxygen shortages, officials said Saturday. Authorities have launched an inquiry into the causes of the oxygen disruption but denied reports that it had caused the deaths at the Baba Raghav Das Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh state. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[3255,516,10158],"yoast_head":"\n