'22 Gasped For Breath After Oxygen Supply Cut For 5 Mins': Probe Ordered Into Agra's Paras Hospital's Video

According to a report,owner of the Paras Hospital in Agra snapped the oxygen supply of Covid patients for five minutes to see who will survive.The Uttar Pradesh government has said it will carry out an inquiry

Agra: The country witnessed devastation and havoc in April and May when the brutal Coronavirus wave took thousands of lives daily. Many succumbed to the virus due to the shortage of oxygen. Now, an incident in Agra has shocked the people of the country after 22 people allegedly died in a single day in a private hospital due to oxygen shortage.

District authorities in Agra have ordered a probe after a video of the owner of Paras hospital surfaced in which the owner of the private hospital Dr.Arinjay Jain is head saying that he had cut off the oxygen supply of patients on April 26, according to the viral video.

According to a report by the Times Of India, the doctor of the private hospital was caught on camera saying in the morning of April 26, he snapped the oxygen supply of patients for 5 minutes to see who all will survive.

'Conducted Oxygen Mock Drill, 22 patients turned blue'

According to the video, the doctor is not visible but he can be heard saying, "  there was an acute shortage of oxygen on that day, and the hospital administration asked people to get their patients discharged but no one was ready. "Then I decided to try something out - a mock drill of sorts - and asked the staff to identify those whose oxygen supply can be cut. That way, we will get to know who will die and who'll survive. The mock drill happened at 7am, no one knows about this. Soon, 22 patients’ bodies turned blue and they started gasping for breath so we came to know that they won’t survive in case there is no oxygen. Then, we ask family members of the remaining 74 patients to arrange their own oxygen cylinders"

Though the probe has been ordered and the district magistrate has said that the content of the video is being investigated, the Agra Police has not yet received a formal complaint against the doctor or the hospital.

DM Claims only 7 people lost lives due from April 26-27

In a statement to the media, Agra District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh claimed there was no death due to lack of oxygen on that day the alleged video was recorded. However, he said a probe would be conducted.

"Initially, there was some panic and shortage but we sorted all that out in 48 hours. In this hospital, there have been seven Covid deaths on the 26th and 27th of April. The hospital also has a lot of other ICU beds. There is no truth that 22 people died but we will carry out an inquiry," Singh said in a statement.

Opposition trains guns on BJP

After the incident came to light, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condemned the event and said, "There is a severe shortage of both oxygen and humanity under the BJP rule," he said in a Hindi tweet, calling for swift action against those responsible for the "dangerous crime".

“There is a severe shortage COVID of both oxygen and humanity under the BJP rule. Action should be taken immediately against all those responsible for this dangerous crime,” Rahul Gandhi also posted on Twitter. “My condolences to the families of the deceased in this hour of grief,” he added.

Accused Dr Arinjay Jain's clarification

However, the owner of the hospital and the accused  Arinjay Jain issued a statement after the viral video and said that they were discussing the flow meter incident and the video is being present wrongly. Dr Jain says that he just accessed the oxygen flow with the flow meter.