In an appalling incident, 17 patients, including two children, died at the Maharaja Yashwant Rao Hospital in Indore on Thursday.
Shockingly, it is believed that the reason behind these deaths is the oxygen supply being mysteriously snapped for around 15 minutes between 3am and 4am.
While shockwaves rippled through the city, the hospital administration insisted that the deaths were “routine” in a large hospital.
Divisional Commissioner Sanjay Dubey denied the allegation and said there was no disruption in oxygen supply or medical negligence.
He said patients died due to serious illness, adding that on an average four to six patients die in the ICU every day.
“There is no child among the dead. There was no medical negligence,” the officer added.
However, some highly placed sources in the hospital confirmed that there was “disruption” in the oxygen supply at around 3am. But information about the incident was limited to a group of senior officials as the oxygen plant records were missing and the staff manning the system was not found.
Dubey, who is also the chairman of autonomous body of MGM Medical College to which MY Hospital is attached, said, “There is no negligence. I have been to every ward of the hospital after certain local newspapers carried the misinformation. There was no break in oxygen supply. The deaths are routine in a 1400-bed hospital.”
He added that the hospital records 10-20 deaths a day.
Officials on Thursday said that every day 60-70 patients are put on oxygen, which is supplied by pipe in almost all wards. “If the oxygen supply had been cut off, the rest of the patients should also have died,” Dubey pointed out.
