Oxygen shortage led to 24 deaths in Chamarajanagar hospital: Report

Twenty-four COVID-19 sufferers, who have been being handled at Chamarajanagar district hospital, died due to lack of oxygen on May 2 and three, and the shortage of oxygen occurred due to failure of the district administration in basic and the hospital authorities in explicit, in accordance to a report submitted by a committee consisting of two retired judges of the High Court.

“The Dean of Chamarajanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) and the in charge district surgeon, a microbiologist, did not exhibit leadership quality and failed to efficiently marshal available resources to save lives,” the report stated.

“The Deputy Commissioner of Chamarajanagar, as chairman of the District Disaster Management Committee, miserably failed to guide and supervise the crisis situation arising out of extreme demand for oxygen. On the contrary, he indulged in an unsavoury blame game accusing the DC of Mysuru of causing hindrance for oxygen supply without any basis,” the committee identified in its report. “…the DC, Mysuru, did not come in the way of refilling agencies in Mysuru from refilling oxygen cylinders of any other districts, including Chamarajanagar,” it said.

The committee, comprising A.N. Venugopala Gowda and K.N. Keshavanarayana, retired judges, and S.T. Ramesh, DG&IGP (retd), submitted its report to the Karnataka High Court after analysing official data that have been seized by the Chief Secretary on route of the court docket. A Special Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay (*24*) Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar directed the federal government to submit its response on the report of the panel, which has really helpful fee of compensation to authorized heirs of the 24 victims.

The report additionally stated {that a} detailed probe is crucial to unearth omissions and commissions of people.

“Had the hospital administration been vigilant, it could have had enough stock of oxygen by timely refilling cylinders from its suppliers,” the report said.

Interestingly, the report identified that there was not even a whisper about shortage of oxygen inventory on the hospital by any of the Mysuru-based companies, with whom CIMS had contracts, in the assembly held by the DC, Chamarajanagar on May 2.

The report stated the hospital was depending on six kilolitre liquid medical oxygen (LMO) tank, commissioned solely on April 29, 2021, although it was put in a number of months in the past. Prior to commissioning of the tank, the hospital was utilizing 250 jumbo cylinders together with 100 jumbo cylinders secured from taluk hospitals.

“Refilling of jumbo cylinders took a nosedive after commissioning of the tank. The mismanagement in that regard is quite evident. Slackness appears to have set in probably on account of LMO tank being installed,” the report stated.

The report additionally identified that “oxygen in the LMO tank should have catered for a period of at least 40 hours. But it is reported to have been exhausted in less than 30 hours, which shows mismanagement of the lifesaving gas, even during critical time.”

“Had the hospital administration been vigilant, it could have had enough of oxygen by timely refilling of cylinders. With the bottling plant at a distance of about 70 km, not having sufficient filled oxygen cylinders at Chamarajanagar is an act of callousness and led to loss of dozens of precious lives,” the report stated.

The report discovered that because the Mysuru district hospital dispatched 40 jumbo cylinders at midnight on May 2, the truck ought to have reached Chamarajanagar by 2 a.m. if it had not stopped wherever. However, the truck waited for hours at a refilling company to load one other 30 cylinders and reached Chamarajanagar hospital solely at 6 a.m. on May 3.