At least 24 COVID-19 patients on life support died after a leak in a medical oxygen tank disrupted the deliver of the gas at Dr. Zakir Hussain Hospital in Nashik, Maharashtra, on Wednesday.
Attributing the leak to a valve malfunction, State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said a high-level inquiry were ordered to check if negligence had caused the tragedy.
Nashik hospital tragedy | Maharashtra CM announces probe
Sources stated the tragedy spread out round 10 a.m. while the tank was being refilled after the oxygen level went down. The huge leak induced disruption in the crucial oxygen supply for at the least half-an-hour. A fire brigade group needed to be rushed to the hospital to include the leak.
Mr. Tope stated 61 of the 157 patients in the hospital had been in a critical condition and required oxygen.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, expressing grief over the incident, introduced a thorough inquiry. “The family of each patient who died will obtain a compensation of ₹five lakh. I appeal to the humans not to indulge in any form of politics,” he stated in a statement.
Mr. Thackeray stated the tragedy confirmed the want to be cautious in the battle in opposition to the pandemic. “We had been going through the pandemic for extra than a year now and the to be had doctors and medical staff are running day and night to save lives of patients… Such incidents should now no longer happen in the future. The management will should work very cautiously to save you the sort of occurrences that might erode the morale of the health personnel,” Mr. Thackeray stated.
The Chief Minister stated he had informed the Chief Secretary to without delay look into and to decide duty so that hospitals in no different district may want to report oxygen leaks.
Nashik Collector Suraj Mandhare stated the tank belonged to a non-public vendor. “Apparently, technicians attempted to repair the valve whilst low pressure caused the leakage. This brought about the deaths of twenty-two critical patients who had been on ventilator guide. My deepest condolences to the family of the deceased,” he stated.
The Acknowledging the anger and grief felt through relatives of the deceased, the Collector advised humans to preserve restraint and confident that a thorough probe was below way.
“Currently, the opposite sufferers are being provided oxygen from the repaired tank. They are in a solid circumstance, as consistent with scientific government,” Mr. Mandhare stated.
Chaotic scenes erupted at the hospital premises as relatives of sufferers converged at the scene of the tragedy. They accused the Nashik Municipal Corporation government of now no longer giving them right records at the incident.
PM ‘anguished’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish over the incident. “The tragedy at a hospital in Nashik due to oxygen tank leakage is heart-wrenching. Anguished through the loss of lives because of it. Condolences to the bereaved families on this sad hour,” he tweeted.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also condoled the deaths of the patients. Mr. Gandhi advised the Maharashtra government to offer all help to the affected.
The tragedy comes at a time while Maharashtra, the worst-hit State in India in terms of COVID-19 cases and fatalities, is reeling below an acute scarcity of oxygen.
Local Shiv Sena chief Sudhakar Badgujar, who was a number of the first to attain the spot of the coincidence, expressed fears that the demise toll may want to rise.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Pravin Darekar stated that the Nashik civic body government had been to blame for negligence and demanded a case of culpable murder be lodged in opposition to the NMC Commissioner. “One can not pin the blame for this tragedy simply on mere technicians. The NMC authorities and the State authorities is similarly responsible for this,” Mr. Darekar stated.
The BJP is in power in the NMC.
The truth that no BJP consultant reached the coincidence spot quickly drew accusations of callous politicking on a part of the saffron birthday birthday celebration from numerous quarters.
“There is no question of playing politics here. Devendra Fadnavis (Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly) and myself are to be had for humans 24 hours a day. In this case, it is surely NMC government who are to be blamed for negligence,” Mr. Darekar stated.
BJP State president Chandrakant Patil stated that this was now no longer the primary time that such incidents were said in Nashik and throughout the State. He advised Mr. Thackeray and the Maha Vikas Aghadi authorities to “get its act together” and ensure such incidents did now no longer arise again.
Along with Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur, Nashik has witnessed huge case spikes and COVID-19-associated deaths in each waves of the pandemic. The district, which has been recording a mean daily spike of 3,000 cases, has round 45,000 lively cases at present, at the same time as its overall death toll stands at 2,672.