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New Delhi : The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that 11 patients including two children died at Maharaja Yashwantrao (MY) Hospital at Indore, Madhya Pradesh, as the oxygen supply mysteriously snapped for around 15 minutes between 3 am and 4 am on June 21, 2017.
The NHRC has observed that the contents of the news report, if true, indicate gross negligence by the hospital authorities amounting to violation of Right to Life of the patients, who were in the medical care of a government run hospital, according to an NHRC release.
The commission has issued a notice to the Chief Secretary (CS), Government of Madhya Pradesh, calling for a detailed report in the matter within four weeks. The CS has also been directed to submit a specific report whether 10-20 deaths a day, as mentioned in the news report, are taking place at the MY Hospital due to lack of infrastructure or any kind of negligence and whether the government has taken any steps to address the issue, according to the NHRC release.
As per the media report, carried on June 23, 2017, the Chairman of the autonomous body of MGM Medical Hospital, to which the MY Hospital is attached, had stated that there was no disruption in oxygen supply, as he had been to every ward of the hospital after certain local newspapers carried the misinformation. However, a highly placed source in the hospital had confirmed that there was disruption in oxygen supply around 3 am on June 21, 2017.
It is further mentioned that the oxygen delivery system of the MY Hospital has been under scanner since the death of two children, who were given nitrogen gas instead of oxygen in the Paediatric Operation Theatre on May 28, 2016. Officials of the Hospital have said that 60-70 patients are put on oxygen in different wards every day. If the oxygen supply had been cut off, the rest of the patients should also have died.