30 children died at hospital in CM Yogi hometown Gorakhpur
GORAKHPUR : District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela confirmed the news and said that at least 30 children died due to the shortage of Oxygen supply. Hospital authorities told India TV that the agency responsible for supplying oxygen stopped supply last night, leading to the death of children, mainly suffering from encephalitis.
The hospital lies in the home turf of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the incident comes two days after he himself inspected the hospital during his tour of Gorakhpur.
The incident comes two days after the visit of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to the hospital to review its functioning. Gorakhpur, where the hospital is located, is the Lok Sabha constituency of the CM Adityanath. allegedly after a private firm contracted to supply liquid oxygen to the hospital backed out as it was not paid outstanding dues amounting to almost ₹70 lakh.
The children were admitted at the Baba Raghav Das Hospital in Gorakhpur district of northern Uttar Pradesh, India`s most populated state ruled by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party. “The hospital has said that 23 children died on Thursday and 11 today. At the moment we only have this information,” senior police superintendent Satyarth Aniruddha Pankaj told AFP by phone. “The matter is being investigated,” he said.
City magistrate V K Srivastava, however, denied the allegations and said the hospital had enough oxygen cylinders in stock. “The deaths were not due to lack of oxygen as is being reported. The supply was stopped yesterday (Thursday) but the hospital has enough cylinders in stock.
The Uttar Pradesh government, however, denied that the deaths were caused due to lack of oxygen supply, saying the casualties were due to various illnesses. A probe has been ordered to ascertain the cause of deaths. District Magistrate (DM) Rajeev Rautela said that around 30 patients had died in the hospital over the last 36 hours, including 14 in the neonatal ward.
Of these, seven deaths were reported since Thursday night — three in the neonatal ward, two in the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) ward and two in the general ward — while the other 23 deaths were reported since midnight of August 9. The 23 deaths comprised of 14 in the neonatal ward, three in the AES ward and six in the general ward.
Mr. Rautela said that as per the doctors of the BRD Hospital no deaths had taken place due to the lack of oxygen supply.”This specific question was asked of medical officers who said that since they had alternate oxygen, no death had taken place due to lack of oxygen,” the DM said. A government spokesperson said, “No patient died due to lack of oxygen supply in BRD Medical College.”
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