It is feared that four people have died due to an interruption in oxygen supply at the Cancer Hospital, which has been converted into a COVID-19 hospital attached to the Super Specialty Hospital. The incident is the third in as many days to result in the deaths of COVID patients from alleged human error and lack of adequate supervision in state hospitals in Anantapur District.
The cancer hospital has a 6-kilo unit of liquid medical oxygen, but it was exhausted by 6 p.m. and the new supplies didn’t arrive until 7:45 p.m. The four patients died in the meantime and 45 minutes, Anantapur Urban MLA Anantha Venkatarami Reddy told media representatives outside the US hospital. A large contingent of police was deployed to maintain law and order.
Four ambulances went out, but it was not clear how many died.
District collector Gandham Chandrudu, DMHO Y. Kameswara Prasad, and oxygen supply coordinators P. Ramesh Reddy and R. Jagannath Singh did their best to get the oxygen refill on time but were unable to save the situation. When media people tried to get the District Collector’s view, he chose not to answer questions.