Goa Oxygen Crisis: 8 More Deaths At GMC As O2 Supply Drops For As Long As 90 Mins, Dean Says Wrong To Link Both

Panaji: Goa continues to reel under the impact of Oxygen crisis as it is reported to have claimed eight more lives at Goa Medical College (GMC) on Saturday.

According to a report by The Times of India, the total death toll due to lack of oxygen at the premier government hospital since earlier this week now stands at 83.

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The oxygen crisis is reported to have claimed eight more lives at Goa Medical College (GMC) and most of these fatalities occurred between 2 am and 6 am dubbed as the “dark hour”.

However, the doctors at the hospital have not attributed the deaths to the oxygen crisis stating that most of these patients have died due to Covid pneumonia. GMC dean Dr Shivananad Bandekar echoed the same, saying that it would not be right to conclude that they took place due to a drop in oxygen levels.

He added that identifying these deaths, which took place between 2 am and 6 am, in a separate manner was not correct as Covid-19 fatalities are taking place throughout the day.

Meanwhile, according to the report, nurses and family members of patients have said that oxygen fluctuation was noticed throughout the night.

As per the log of dips in the central oxygen pipeline which is kept by the hospital, as many as 13 wards underwent a drop in oxygen supply – the longest drop recorded was in ward 143 for 90 minutes.

Goa has been reporting worrying deaths caused by oxygen supply in the past few days. Several Covid-19 deaths have been reported between 2 am and 6 am in GMCH; the state government told the High Court that there were “logistic issues” related to the supply of medical oxygen to patients.

On Wednesday, a bench of Justices Mahesh Sonak and Nitin Sambre had directed the government to ensure that no more lives were lost due to the oxygen crisis. To reduce the load on GMC, 350 Covid-19 patients were shifted to the super-speciality block, which has an independent medical oxygen plant.

According to the state health bulletin, 58 Covid patients lost their lives on Saturday, 33 of them were reported from GMC alone.

On the same day, a 20,000-kilo litre oxygen tank was commissioned in the Goa Medical College and Hospital.

 Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the tank was shifted from Bicholim industrial estate and the move would reduce GMCH’s dependence on oxygen cylinders.

He said this was the third such tank to be commissioned in the state, the other two being in South Goa District Hospital and GMCH’s super-speciality block, both of which have 550 and 350 Covid- 19 patients respectively.

(With Agency Inputs)