Shahdol Covid Deaths: College Dean Claims Patients Died Due To Oxygen Shortage, MP Minister Denies Reports

12 coronavirus patients died at the Shahdol Medical College in Madhya Pradesh allegedly due to the lack of liquid medical oxygen on Sunday night

Image: PTI

At least six COVID-19 patients who were undergoing treatment at the ICU ward of Shahdol medical college were declared dead allegedly due to a shortage of oxygen supply. In the last 25 hours, Shahdol medical college has reported 12 deaths of Covid patients.

Dean of the Shahdol Medical College, Dr Milind Shiralkar told the media earlier that the deaths of Covid-19 patients were the result of lack of medical oxygen.

Family members of the deceased Covid-19 patients also claimed that the deaths were caused by lack of a stable supply of oxygen

"Out of 62 patients admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward of the medical college's COVID-19 centre, six patients died due to low pressure of liquid oxygen late last night," the facility's dean, Dr Milind Shiralkar, said to PTI during the early hours of Sunday.

What did the Shahdol College dean say about the incident earlier?

Speaking to the media the Shahdol college dean Dr Milind Shiralkar assured that other patients were completely fine.

"Experts have been called and the causes are being ascertained," he said.

Shiralkar said the liquid oxygen supply at the hospital was running out by late Saturday evening.

Suppliers were being contacted constantly, but the vehicle did not reach till late night, due to which the pressure of oxygen supplied to the patients was reduced, he said.

The official said there was a shortage of oxygen supply since the last few days.

The oxygen plant on the campus has a storage capacity of 10 kilo litres per day, the official said, adding that liquid oxygen is brought from other states.

The hospital has 62 ICU beds where critical COVID-19 patients are admitted, he added.

Shahdol administration denies reports of shortage of oxygen

However, Shahdol DM Satendra Singh denied reports of low oxygen supply and said, "Nobody died of oxygen shortage. Only 6 deaths were reported till 8 am. They were critical due to comorbidities. We have a sufficient supply of oxygen."

The Madhya Pradesh Medical Education Minister also claimed that he spoke to the college dean who said that the deaths were not due to the shortage of oxygen.

 MP Medical Education Min Vishwas Sarang said, "Spoke to medical college's Dean & learnt that they didn't die due to oxygen shortage. They were in critical situation. Had it been due to oxygen shortage, other patients on ventilator would have also suffered. However, we will run inquiry."

Opposition slams Shivraj govt over Shahdol incident

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath asked the government how long the deaths due to lack of oxygen will continue in the state.

In a tweet, Nath said, Now very sad news of deaths due to lack of oxygen is coming from Shahdol? Why didnt the government wake up even after deaths in Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, Sagar, Jabalpur, Khandwa, Khargone due to shortage of oxygen? After all, how long will deaths continue due to lack of oxygen in the state?

Terming the situation as scary, Nath also said there was a shortage of Remdesivir injections used in the treatment of coronavirus, and alleged that the key anti-viral drug and oxygen were available only on paper and not in reality.

According to the state's health bulletin, 142 fresh cases of the viral infection were detected in Shahdol on Saturday, taking the caseload in the district to 4,528.

Till Saturday, the district reported 38 fatalities due to the infection since the pandemic began.

(With PTI Inputs)