12 COVID-19 Patients Died In A Mumbai Hospital In Two Weeks Due To Low Oxygen Pressure

The medical infrastructure in India is being stretched to its limits due to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the worst affected cities like Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Recently, from around the world, we have heard horror stories about how hospitals ran out of beds for COVID-19 patients and how ventilators were shared due to the shortage of them.

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While India has not reached that stage, there is a growing fear that if the number of cases continues to grow like the current trend there could soon be an implosion of cases, more than what the hospitals can handle. This adds to the fact that the medical infrastructure is ill-equipped to deal with such a crisis.

Now reports have emerged about patient deaths in a Mumbai hospital due to low oxygen pressure. According to Mumbai Mirror, 12 COVID-19 patients have died at the Jogeshwari Trauma Centre, a hospital run by the BMC.

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Doctors there alleged that at least 12 COVID patients have died in just two weeks as the hospital was not been able to supply adequate oxygen. The HBT trauma centre in Jogeshwari is one of the COVID-care facilities in the city and has 200 beds. Around 90 per cent of patients at the facility need oxygen supply.

¡°Out of the 25 beds in the ICU, you will find at least 15 machines, which say ¡®Low O2 Pressure¡¯, a resident doctor, on condition of anonymity told Mumbai Mirror. According to doctors, each patient needs between 3 to 10 litres of oxygen per minute.

¡°Two patients were gasping for breath and needed 8 to 10 litres of oxygen per minute. However, the supply was so slow the screen was continuously giving an alert of low pressure O2, and by the time I tried to fix the pressure with the hospital technician, both patients had died,¡± another doctor said.

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The medical staff has also alleged that they have been left traumatized due to the deaths. In a letter to the medical superintendent of the hospital Dr. Vidya Mane they said that their mental health is being affected after seeing patients die while gasping for breath. Dr. Mane who admitted that the hospital is currently struggling to meet the demand of oxygen denied any death due to low pressure oxygen supply.

¡°When we started 50 Covid-19 beds the requirement was 100 jumbo oxygen cylinders, now with 200 beds, we have increased the cylinders to 350. It is true that our demand is more, because currently we are getting many critical cases, nearly all of them need oxygen support. Patients have died because they reached the hospital in a critical stage," she said.

She added that the hospital has placed an order for 500 cylinders after resident doctors brought the issue to her notice.