India COVID crisis: ‘Lack of oxygen killed, not virus’ | Coronavirus pandemic News

New Delhi, India – On Saturday evening, 12 coronavirus patients were killed after medical oxygen was depleted at New Delhi Batra Hospital. Among the dead was Dr. RK Himthani, head of the gastroenterology unit at the same hospital.

A private hospital in south Delhi was among the capital of India and all over India due to a lack of oxygen to sound the alarm as fans and fans of ICU beds are struggling to cope.

Last week, the Batra Hospital administration said they had the same deficiency, but it arrived a few minutes before the oxygen ran out. They were left unlucky on Saturday.

“No help has come”

The executive director of Dr. Sudhanshu Bankata of Batra Hospital told Al Jazeera that the first SOS alarm was sounded at approximately 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, but “no help came.”

As the day progressed, oxygen levels in critical care wards began to decline.

The ICU doctors and paramedic staff, located on the fifth floor of a hospital in south Delhi, went to work with “ambu bags” (manual stimulants) to keep the patients alive in the fight against time.

“The situation was chaotic,” said a doctor who did not want to reveal his identity for fear of reparation. “There was panic around.”

Hospital staff have also had to push back desperate family members who were forced to enter the ICU after worrying about sick loved ones after hearing that their oxygen supply is declining.

Meanwhile, Bankata posted a video appeal on Twitter, saying he was using an oxygen cylinder that would not last more than 10 minutes in the hospital.

Around noon, he was left without oxygen in the hospital for more than an hour, killing a dozen ICU patients, including Himthani.

It has been the second incident in the nation’s capital since COVID-19 was hit by a second strong wave in India this month.

On April 23, at least 26 patients died at the city’s Jaipur Gold Hospital when the oxygen supply to critical care units was depleted.

“The allotted quota (oxygen) is much lower than that requested by Delhi,” Bankata told Al Jazeera.

Center, Delhi does not lose oxygen

According to the quota, the Bank meant that the federal government would distribute medical oxygen to states, including Delhi.

“Yesterday, Delhi received 440 MT (metric tons) of oxygen, which is less than the 590 MT quota. We need 976 MT of oxygen every day because we are increasing the number of beds,” Deputy Minister Manish Sisodia of Delhi told them on Monday.

Last week, requests for oxygen from hospitals in Delhi caused a verbal confrontation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the central government of Delhi.

On April 24, Kejriwal made a request to Modi for oxygen in a virtual meeting of the prime minister with some ministers. Kejriwal complained that a miffed modi had “broken protocol” by making developments public at a “home meeting”.

On Saturday, the Delhi High Court, with a strong rebuke, directed the central government to ensure that the capital’s hospitals were provided with adequate oxygen supply. The Modi government, instead of complying, took a request to the court asking it to recall the order.

On Monday, the Supreme Court asked the center to respond to a request from the Delhi government to hand over the supply and distribution of oxygen to the armed forces.

Meanwhile, a joint statement issued by 13 prominent opposition leaders on Sunday called on the central government to “focus all attention on the continuous supply of oxygen to all hospitals and health centers in the country.”

The situation is serious. The Modi government must act. Joint call for immediate action ???????? pic.twitter.com/OY7YRbGDAQ

– Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) May 2, 2021

Leaders also called for an “immediate launch of a free mass vaccination program across the country”.

“It’s a serious situation. The Modi government must act, ”tweeted Sitaram Yechury, the communist leader of the Marxist Party of India (CPM).

Meanwhile, social media continued to charge support for infected families for desperate people or desperate people looking for hospital beds.

Some didn’t get it.

Harbhajan Singh lost his 64-year-old wife Kawaljeet Kaur to Batra hospital when she was left without oxygen on Saturday.

“I told my kids that if we send them to the hospital they won’t come back alive. And that’s what happened. He was talking until yesterday and is gone today, ”Singh told Al Jazeera outside the hospital, struggling to stay calm.

“My wife died because we didn’t get any help.”

Himthani’s friends also said that the virus was not responsible for his death, but that it was the government that did not provide him with oxygen while he was lying in a hospital bed, swollen with air.

“We lost a cheerful, smiling face … not because of the virus, but because of OXYGEN LACK,” tweeted his colleague Dr. Tushar Mehta.

When Al Jazeera was contacted to comment on Himthani’s death, Mehta said, “He died of lack of oxygen. Whose job is it to provide oxygen?”