Day after 12 deaths, Delhi's Batra Hospital gets 2.5-tonne liquid oxygen

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A day after 12 patients, including a doctor, died due to oxygen shortage at Delhi's Batra Hospital, the facility in south Delhi on Sunday received 2.5-tonne liquid medical oxygen.

S.C.L. Gupta, the medical director of Batra Hospital, confirmed that an oxygen tanker carrying the life-saving gas arrived at its Mehrauli-based facility where 12 people lost their lives on Saturday afternoon due to lack of medical oxygen for over an hour.

"An oxygen tanker from INOX carrying 2.5-tonne liquid oxygen had reached Batra at around 12 noon. Supply to sustain till 11 p.m.," Gupta said.

The oxygen supply was provided to the hospital a day after the tragedy occurred on its campus, killing the hospital's gastroenteritis head R.K. Himthani (62) and 11 others. Six of the 12 deceased persons were admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU).

"Death toll at Batra Hospital increases from 8 to 12. Oxygen shortage at the facility led to these deaths. These were patients whose oxygen level sunk when the supply dropped," Sudhanshu Bankata, the Executive Director of Batra Hospital, had said on Saturday.

As on Saturday, a total of 220 patients were on oxygen support at the hospital. The hospital had sent an SOS message before the tragedy on Saturday, "Oxygen will last for another 10 minutes." While oxygen was later supplied to the hospital, it said that by that time, eight patients had already died. Another four patients died later.

This was the second time in a week that the hospital ran out of medical oxygen. On April 24, the hospital had received a last-minute supply which arrived minutes after its oxygen reserves ran out.

Earlier this month, 20 people admitted to the critical care unit of Jaipur Golden hospital in Rohini had died when their oxygen levels dropped. The hospital had blamed the Delhi government for the delay in oxygen supply before the Delhi High Court.

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