Hero Image

Motihari: Oxygen scare in hospital treating AES patients

MOTIHARI: An oxygen supply scare early on Thursday jolted the paediatric ICU of the Motihari sadar hospital where children are undergoing treatment for the acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), which has already taken more than 150 lives in the state.

The critical oxygen supply dried up for nearly 15 minutes sending doctors and nurses into a tizzy, who found out that four cylinders supplying life-saving oxygen were empty.
The oxygen scare, however, did not lead to any untoward incident as the supply was soon restored. “Oxygen supply was restored within 15 minutes after fitting extra gas cylinder,” said Dr Pankaj.

Thursday’s incident is reminiscent of the oxygen supply tragedy at a Gorakhpur hospital in 2017 where a large number of children undergoing treatment for Japanese encephalitis had died due to lack of oxygen supply.

East Champaran civil surgeon Dr K N Gupta said that oxygen cylinders are fitted with sirens. “The moment a cylinder becomes empty, the siren blows. It is possible that the hospital staff did not hear the siren. However, as soon as empty cylinders were detected, they were replaced,” he added.

Dr Gupta said that the hospital has a 10-bed PICU with facilities like cardiac monitor, nebulizer, ventilators and oxygen gas pipeline to reduce the pressure on SKMCH in the wake of AES outbreak.

Bharat Bhushan, hospital manager, said that altogether 143 children were admitted to PICU in the last 20 days and 44 had AES symptoms. “Seven patients were referred to SKMCH and two died here. At present, there are three AES patients at the sadar hospital and one Muskan Kumari of Haraj village was referred to SKMCH in serious condition on Thursday,” Bhsuhan said.

District programe manager, health department, Amit Achal, said that 24 children from the district have died due to AES till July 4 and only two patients died here, while the rest at SKMCH in Muzaffarpur. The district administration has already given ex gratia payment of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased children.

According to reports Chakiya, Mehasi, Madhuban, Areraj and Kalyanpur blocks in East Champaran were worst affected. Purvi Champaran MP Radha Mohan Singh has sanctioned Rs 15 lakh from his local development fund to make special wards at Chakiya and Areraj sub-divisional hospitals.

READ ON APP