In the wee hours of today, April 18, six critically ill COVID19 patients admitted at the ICU of the Government Medical College, Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh, died reportedly due to low pressure of oxygen.
Whereas family members of the dead patients allege low pressure of oxygen, due to non-availability of sufficient quantity of liquid medical oxygen at the medical college, led to these deaths, the same has been denied by both the dean of the medical college and the district collector.
“My nephew was admitted at the medical college for the past one week. Today morning around four, their [medical college’s] oxygen supply finished. He died due to shortage of oxygen,” said Amit Jaiswal, uncle of Rajkumar Jaiswal, one of the dead patients.
Firoz Khan, another relative of a dead COVID patient said: “Today morning at six I was told he is dead. The guard at the hospital said oxygen at the medical college had finished.”
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However, both the dead of the medical college and the district collector have denied these deaths happened due to oxygen shortage or low pressure of oxygen.
“We have a liquid medical oxygen plant at the medical college whose liquid oxygen finished last night because of which there has been a drop in the oxygen pressure,” said Milind Shiralkar, dean of Government Medical College, Shahdol. “We had already raised demand for liquid oxygen and by last evening the tanker should have come. But could not come. Then we were told the tanker will come by 2 am, but didn’t come. By then our liquid oxygen completely finished,” he added.
However, he went on to add that the medical college had oxygen cylinders and oxygen was being given to the patients. “The demand for oxygen is high as all oxygen points are under use. And since liquid oxygen has finished, the oxygen pressure is low. But oxygen is being supplied. The liquid oxygen tanker is on its way and will reach soon,” he assured today morning.
He admitted six patients had died last night at the medical college’s ICU, but not due to low pressure of oxygen or oxygen shortage. “We have many other patients admitted at the ICU. Yes, six critical patients have died and we are ascertaining the reason for their death,” said Shiralkar.
Meanwhile, the district collector Satendra Singh also denied deaths were caused due to a drop in oxygen pressure or any shortage of oxygen. “I received a call from the dean of medical college informing the oxygen tanker’s pressure was dropping and they were using jumbo oxygen cylinder to supply oxygen to patients. He asked for additional jumbo oxygen cylinders which we immediately supplied to the medical college from the district hospital,” said Singh.
“Six patients have died at the medical college. They were critically ill and had co-morbidities. No death caused due to lack of oxygen supply,” he added.
Meanwhile, amid the second wave of COVID19 as coronavirus cases soar daily, a shortage of medical oxygen is being felt in several states of the country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today, April 18, tweeted informing that “162 PSA [pressure swing adsorption] oxygen plants have been sanctioned by Government of India for installation in public health facilities in all States. These will augment medical oxygen capacity by 154.19 MT [metric tonnes].”
The ministry went on to inform that “out of 162 PSA oxygen plants, 33 have been installed. By end of April, 2021, 59 will be installed. By end of May, 2021 80 will be installed.” This means only 20 per cent of the sanctioned oxygen plants have been installed. It is not clear how many of these installed plants are operational at present.
As per the healthy ministry’s tweet, of the 33 PSA oxygen plants installed, five are in Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three each in Chandigarh, Gujarat and Uttarakhand, two each in Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana; and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
The Indian government has also floated its global tender to import 50,000 metric tonnes of oxygen. The bids opened on April 16 and will close on April 28.
