Doctor among 12 die due to oxygen shortage at Delhi hospital

Twelve patients including a doctor died at the Batra Hospital in Indian capital Delhi on Saturday after the hospital ran out of medical oxygen amid the country’s battle against Covid-19, reports India Today.

"We didn’t get oxygen on time. We ran out of oxygen at 12:00 noon. We got oxygen at 1:35 pm. We have lost lives, including one of our own doctors", authorities of the hospital told Indian high court.

The hospital's Executive Director, Dr Sudhanshu Bankata, said the next 24 hours would be "critical" and that more deaths due to oxygen shortage could not be ruled out, NDTV reports.

"These are patients whose oxygen levels sank when supply was low... it is hard to revive such patients. The next 24-48 are hours critical and death toll could be higher," he said.

"220 patients are currently on oxygen support," he added.

This is the second time in a week that Batra Hospital has run out of medical oxygen. On April 24 the hospital received a last-minute re-supply that arrived minutes after its oxygen reserves ran out.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: "this news is very painful. Their lives could have been saved by giving oxygen on time. Delhi should be given its quota of oxygen. Such deaths of our people should not happe... not happen. Delhi required 976 tonnes of oxygen and yesterday (Friday) only 312 tonnes of oxygen was given. How does Delhi breathe?"

Delhi hospitals had been raising the issue of oxygen scarcity in the capital in the past couple of weeks. Earlier, 25 people died due to lack of oxygen in another hospital, according to Indian media.