A report by the Gorakhpur district administration has directly contradicted the state government’s claims that a shortage of oxygen did not kill the 63 children who died at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital. The report, which has been sent to the state government, indicts several doctors and other hospital staff for not doing enough to avert the crisis even when they knew the oxygen supplies were low, multiple reports said on Thursday. However, Scroll.in was unable to access a copy of the report.
Among those named in the report are Dr Satish Kumar, the head of the hospital’s anaesthesia department, who is responsible for overseeing its oxygen supply. Kumar has been charged with dereliction of duty as he was away in Mumbai while the crisis was unfolding, NDTV reported. The college’s Medical Superintendent Dr Rajeev Mishra has also been named, for failing to supervise the situation and delaying payments to the oxygen supply contractor Pushpa Sales, which has also been blamed in the report, Hindustan Times reported.
On Wednesday, the central government team that had visited the hospital claimed that the deaths of 63 children at the hospital were not caused by an oxygen supply shortage. “As per information and data provided to us, it does not look like the deaths have all happened due to shortage of oxygen,” said Dr Harish Chellani, who was part of the team. “As per the records, we have fewer deaths when compared to the figures at the same time last year.”
All the children had died on August 10 and 11, leading to widespread criticism for the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh. As a result, the state had, on August 12, ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incidents.
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