Oxygen shortage at BRD Medical College | Total 60 dead

Gorakhpur: The negligence of BRD Medical College here on Friday led to death of at least 60 people who were being treated here for encephalitis.

According to the official sources, no supply of oxygen cylinders in the past 24 hours in the hospital took toll on 48 lives including that of 30 children.

It may be mentioned that on Thursday, the technician of the hospital had penned a letter to medical collage administration informing about the shortage of oxygen, but they made no arrangements to tackle the situation.

An oxygen plant was set up at the BRD Medical Collage back in 2015. Dipankar Sharma, who is an official of the supplying firm Pushpa Sales, had also informed the medical college principle about stalling the oxygen supply two days back following the unpaid debts of over Rs 64 lakh.

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Later on Thursday, the supplying firm again on Thursday informed about the shortage of liquid oxygen through a letter to the hospital administration.

On being questioned about the major tragedy, BRD Medical Collage Principle Dr Rajeev Mishra gave a very insensitive response as he said, "The normalcy in oxygen supply has been restored and the situation is now under control."

The medical college principle, however, is now not in the city. He was well aware of the upcoming problem as Pushpa Sales had been notifying him about the shortage of funds for buying liquid oxygen which it used to buy from Dehradun-based company Inox.

If the collage administration had waked up a little earlier, the lives of those 30 children could have been saved.

Expressing dismay over the shocking tragedy, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav demanded stringent action against the responsible officials of the medical college administration and appealed the UP government to give Rs 20 lakh compensation to the kins of each deceased.

The Samajwadi Party and Congress leaders in Gorakhpur are staging protest at the medical college premises.

District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela is currently holding a meeting with eight legislators inside the medical college premises. It is worth mentioning that Gorakhpur is the parliamentary constituency of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

A statement issued by the state Information Department late evening, however, categorically rubbished media reports claiming that 30 kids died at the medical college due to shortage of oxygen.

It, however, said District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela was personally stationed at the medical college and keeping vigil on the situation emanating out of the death of seven patients on Friday due to "different medical reasons".

The statement came hours after the Gorakhpur DM was seen on TV grabs confirming "death of 30 kids in the last two days" and seven deaths in the last 24 hours.

Rautela had told local TV channels that 17 children had died in the neo-natal ward, five in the ward meant of patients suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome and eight in the general ward.

Checkout the list of deceased in next slides:

Check pictures of the protest in slides: