Covid +ve man dies after 'oxygen cylinder blast' in Dhanbad

Sindri: A Covid-19 patient died soon after the nozzle of an oxygen cylinder at Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) central hospital in Dhanbad on Friday evening. While some sources at the hospital said Shyam Sao (55), a resident of Shiv Mandir Road in Jharia, died due to the explosion, the doctor in-charge and BCCL officials said the death was causes to cardiac complications.

Sao was undergoing treatment at Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Dhanbad, since July 22. Suffering from type two diabetes and heart complications for long, Sao tested positive for coronavirus recently and was transferred to the Covid-19 hospital on Thursday.

Doctors on Friday said his condition started deteriorating and they had referred him to Rims, Ranchi, on Friday afternoon, but his family members could not move him immediately. The blast took place at about 7.40pm, and Sao was found dead soon after, they said.

While those present at the hospital said the man was killed because of the blast, doctors and hospital authorities rejected these claims. While Dr Alok Vishwakarma, nodal officer of the Covid-19 hospital, did not respond to repeated phone calls, BCCL’s chief of medical services of Dr A K Gupta told TOI that nothing of this sort happened and the patient died of his heart ailments.

“The staff present there might have checked the new oxygen cylinder by pressing the nozzle and the sound might have created confusion among these nearby,” he said. BCCL is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited with its headquarters in Dhanbad.