3 patients die at Jalandhar hospital as oxygen supply reduced due to technical snag
Meanwhile the Punjab Health Minister Dr. Balbir Singh visited the hospital following the incident and assured that a detailed inquiry will be conducted.
PTC News Desk: Three patients died on Sunday at the Trauma Ward of the Civil Hospital in Jalandhar after a sudden drop in oxygen supply due to technical fault in the oxygen plant. The patients were reportedly on ventilator support.
Among the deceased were a snakebite victim, a youth who had taken a drug overdose, and a TB patient.
Confirming the three deaths, Medical Superintendent Dr Raj Kumar Baddhan said, "Due to a technical fault in the oxygen plant in the evening, the supply was snapped. An oil leak that caused the fault was fixed but the patients succumbed."
Meanwhile the Punjab Health Minister Dr. Balbir Singh visited the hospital following the incident and assured that a detailed inquiry will be conducted.
Balbir Singh said, "These patients were in the ICU and in a critical situation... The oxygen supply was briefly cut off, but it was switched back on immediately... Oxygen supply is complete. There was just a brief pressure drop... Maybe for 1-2 minutes... This incident happened around 8 pm... The deaths did not happen at once; they happened one after the other, within 10-15 minutes of each other... One had consolidation in the lungs, the other was a patient of multiple organ failure, and the third was a drug addict..."
"A team of doctors from Chandigarh will come here to investigate... We will conduct a detailed inquiry, as many people are involved in this matter... A report will be issued in 48 hours," he added.
Civil Surgeon and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Vinay Kumar stated that a brief technical fault led to the oxygen supply reduction and added, "There was a technical fault due to which oxygen supply reduced a bit. Backup cylinders were started immediately. The technical fault was also rectified immediately... All this happened within five to ten minutes... The three patients who died were in a serious condition, and their deaths occurred due to different reasons after this matter...," he said.
The health minister added that a nine-member committee has been formed to investigate the deaths.