Uttar Pradesh: 30 children died due to oxygen shortage in Gorakhpur hospital

Party representatives led by Gulab Nabi Azad, former Union Health Minister, had visited the hospital. The incident has left the whole nation in grief. The minister said on August 1, the dealer (oxygen supplier) had written a letter to the principal of the medical college, Dr Rajiv Mishra, demanding payment of an outstanding amount. The tragic incident has paved way for another political blame game as Congress demands the resignation of state health minister Siddharth Nath Singh.

Talking to reporters after visiting the hospital, the CM said: “We are waiting for the report of the committee constituted by our government. Appropriate action will be taken keeping these points in mind and a probe will be done”, he said.

The punishment will “set a standard”, I assure you, the UP chief minister, who was addressing a joint press conference with Union Health Minister J P Nadda, said.

The hospital had defaulted on the payment for oxygen as a result of which the firm sending the cylinders had stopped supply. As all hell broke loose at the hospital, as many as 50 more oxygen cylinders were brought in around 3.30 am, which also ran dry by 7.30 am.

The families of the children have claimed that the doctors were not treating them well and the hospital was not even providing the medicines which were required for the treatment.

Notwithstanding the denials of the state government, a preliminary report by the district magistrate said that there was a “breakdown” in the oxygen supply on Thursday night.

Initially, it was reported that the children’s deaths occurred due to lack of liquid oxygen in the BRD college, but Adityanath on Saturday stated that the deaths were due to encephalitis and other reasons.

Meem Afzal said, “The hospital was informed that a lot of money was due to the company which supplies oxygen”. He had also instructed the junior doctors to keep pumping Ambu bags if the oxygen supply reduced further in the central pipeline.

The Uttar Pradesh Government, following this report, jumped in defence of the medical college.

This incident has taken the total number of children’s deaths in the district to 60 in the last five days.

Over the lackadaisical attitude, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday suspended the principal of BRD Medial College and ordered a probe in the matter.