Maharashtra: 2 COVID-19 patients die as oxygen valve gets turned off

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Two COVID-19 patients died after an oxygen supply valve was allegedly turned off by an unidentified person at the civil hospital in Beed district of Maharashtra, their relatives claimed on Saturday.

The incident took place on Friday night in the hospital's ward number 7, they said.

While the hospital authorities claimed that only one of the patients was on oxygen support, relatives of the deceased alleged that both of them were on oxygen support.

"The hospital team saw that the oxygen supply valve had been closed...Somebody could have shut the valve," said Dr Sukhdev Rathod, additional civil surgeon of Beed District Civil Hospital.

While one of the patients was on oxygen, the other person's condition was critical, he said, adding that one patient had an HRTC score of 19 and the other had a score of 23.

However, the kin of the deceased, aged 35 and 55 years, alleged that the duo died due to lack of oxygen.

"In the absence of oxygen, the younger patient floundered like a fish out of water and the situation was horrible. No ward boy was present in the room at that time," one of the relatives claimed.

An inquiry will be initiated into the incident to find out who had turned off the oxygen supply valve, a source from the hospital said.

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