Four persons are feared to have died due to a disruption in oxygen supply at the Cancer Hospital, that has been converted into a COVID-19 hospital connected to the Super Speciality Hospital. The incident is the third in as many days resulting in the death of COVID patients from alleged human error and lack of proper supervision at government hospitals in Anantapur district.
The Cancer Hospital has a 6 kilolitre liquid medical oxygen unit, but that was exhausted at 6 p.m. and the new supplies arrived only at 7.45 p.m. The four patients died in the intervening hour and 45 minutes, Anantapur Urban MLA Anantha Venkatarami Reddy told mediapersons outside the hospital. A large police contingent was deployed to maintain law and order.
Four ambulances went out, but it was not clear as to how many died.
District Collector Gandham Chandrudu, DMHO Y. Kameswara Prasad and the Oxygen Supply coordinators P. Ramesh Reddy and R. Jagannath Singh did their best to get the oxygen refill on time, but could not save the situation. When mediapersons tried to get the view of District Collector, he chose not to answer any questions.
