The failure of an air conditioning system in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ward of a hospital in Kanpur was allegedly the cause of death of five patients.
Families of patients admitted in Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial (GSVM) Medical College in Kanpur said that the two AC plants of the ICU had not been working for the last five days.
Paramedical staff had written a complaint, but no action was taken. In the meantime, the staff opened the windows and doors of the ICU to ensure that there was some circulation of air. Families allege that it did not help alleviate the discomfort due to the intense heatwave accross the city. In the end, attendants had to use hand fans.
"Even after repeated complaints, doctors and principals did not pay attention. As a result, four patients died," said Bandan Kumar, family member of a patient admitted in the ICU.
Hospital princpipal Navneet Kumar responded saying that AC failure was not the cause of death. He said that the patients were in a critial condition, and hence their deaths were completely natural.
In a statement to ANI, he said, "Two deaths occurred due to cardiac arrest, and the other two due to chronic illness. I was told that last night both the compressors of the AC short-circuited, but it is being repaired now. There is no issue with the ventilators or the monitors, and only the AC's are not functioning but will be fixed by tomorrow morning."
Last year, as many as 60 children had died in a span of 48 hours due to the shortage of oxygen supply at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur. This was due to non-payment of dues to the supplier, who stopped sending oxygen tanks to the hospital. In September 2017, 49 infants were killed at the Farrukhabad hospital due to the same casuse.
[With inputs from ANI]
