E-Paper
Hospital faces acute oxygen shortage; critical patient on ventilator succumbs
PUNE A Covid patient, who was critical and on ventilator support, succumbed on Tuesday, at Hadapsar based hospital which was facing acute shortage of oxygen supply
PUNE A Covid patient, who was critical and on ventilator support, succumbed on Tuesday, at Hadapsar based hospital which was facing acute shortage of oxygen supply. The hospital authorities said another patient on ventilator had to be shifted to different facility.
According to doctors at Yog Multispecialty Hospital, the patient died as he was in critical condition. While he was critical, the hospital also faced lack of adequate oxygen supply, which was almost bottoming out when the administration, by the evening, sent 32 cylinders to the hospital.
“For the past two days, we have been struggling due to lack of liquid oxygen. Currently, there are 11 patients on ventilators at our hospital. We have only an hour’s supply left,” Dr Abhijeet Darak had said on Tuesday afternoon, hours before his facility received 32 cylinders.
Within an hour, Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh organised 10 cylinders, even as the hospital had sought 20.
“We have ensured adequate oxygen supply to Yog hospital. We are trying to restore it to other hospitals as well I am currently discussing same with Chief Secretary,” said District Collector Rajesh Deshmukh while refusing to speak further citing ongoing meeting.
The hospital has 14 ICU beds and 23 oxygen beds with an hourly oxygen need of seven cylinders, said Darak.
The district collector has assured supply of 20 oxygen cylinders, but the hospital administration is not aware of when will it reach them. “If those cylinders reach, they can last for another three to four hours,” Darak said.
In merely 10 days, the number of patients on oxygen support has increased by 1,208 in Pune city. There has been an exponential growth in the number of critical patients as well. According to the daily Covid report issued by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), on April 9, there were 4,662 patients who were on oxygen support. The number reached 5,870 on April 18. The number of critical patients has also increased by 247 in the last 10 days. Experts say early detection of the infection can help to prevent increase in critical cases.
The acute demand-supply gap of oxygen has left the PMC as well as the district administration in an unprecedented situation. On Monday, a truck carrying medical oxygen to the Jumbo hospital at the College of Engineering and Dalvi hospital got delayed, jeopardising patients’ lives.
