An uproar break out at the Trauma Center of Jalandhar Civil Hospital on July 27 after 3 patients admitted in ICU died. Relatives of deceased patients accused the hospital administration that the death was caused due to oxygen supply disruption.
It was alleged that the supply was disrupted from the oxygen plant for 35 minutes. A total of five patients were harmed due to the stoppage of oxygen supply, out of which 2 were saved.
Following the deaths of the patients, their relatives started protesting at the hospital premises. The incident took place around 9 pm on Sunday night. The seriousness of the issue can be understood by the fact that Punjab Health Minister Dr. Balbir Singh reached the Civil Hospital at around 1 am in the night.
As per information received, Dr. Balbir Singh held a meeting with the doctors regarding the incident. Furthermore, Jalandhar DC Himanshu Aggarwal also reached the spot late at night.
The deceased have been identified as Archana (15), Avtar Lal (32) and Raju (30). Archana was admitted on July 17 after snake bite, Avtar Lal was admitted on July 27 due to drug overdose and Raju was admitted on July 24 for the treatment of TB.
It has been alleged that the supply from the oxygen plant in the ICU was stopped at around 8:30 pm on Sunday night. Only after this the doctors and technicians came to know. It took them about 35 minutes to find out about the fault in the oxygen plant and fix it. In this time 3 people died.
MS Dr. Raj Kumar, posted on duty at the Civil Hospital late night, said - There were 3 patients who died. We have formed a 9 member committee to find out the cause of death. The committee will submit its report within 2 days and action will be taken on that basis. The matter will be investigated whether it is a technical fault or the fault of one of our employees. All the patients who died were serious.
Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Dr. Vinay Anand while talking to the media informed, "There was a technical fault due to which the pressure of oxygen in the Trauma Center was decreased. But, we have backup oxygen cylinders and the fault was resolved soon. The technical fault at the main plant was also resolved soon."
"There were a total of 3 deaths but it happened at different times afterwards."
(On allegations of death due to oxygen disruption), SMO said, "I think that is not correct. All deaths took place at different time interval. One of the deaths was linked to Snake bite, another was admitted as TB patient and the third one was admitted due to drug overdose."
In this case, DC Himanshu Aggarwal said, "A committee has been formed to investigate this unfortunate incident, which will submit its report within 72 hours. The investigation report will make it clear whether the deaths occurred due to lack of oxygen pressure or the patients were already in critical condition, who were being treated in the ICU. The real cause of death will be clear only after the committee's report."
DC also assured that if the negligence of any government official or employee comes to the fore in the investigation, strict action will be taken against him. At the same time, if this is a case of any technical fault, then full efforts will be made to rectify it, so that such incidents do not happen again in future.
Punjab Health Minister Dr. Balbir Singh stayed at Civil Hospital Jalandhar for more than an hour late night and talked to doctors and patients.
After this, he said,"The condition of the patients admitted in the ICU was very critical. It was found from the staff that there was a problem with the oxygen pressure, but oxygen was started in a gap of one to two minutes.
The Health Minister further said, "In view of the seriousness of the matter, an independent investigation team is being formed, which will be led by a Deputy Director level officer."
"This team will reach Jalandhar on Monday morning and will independently investigate the entire incident without any interference. After the completion of the investigation, the report will be submitted directly to me, on the basis of which further action will be taken."
Dr. Balbir Singh assured that negligence at any level will not be tolerated and strict action will be taken against those responsible.