Agra: Death Audit Committee says '22 deaths not due to oxygen shortage' at Paras Hospital

Maintaining that 22 patients did not die due to oxygen shortage at Agra's Paras Hospital, a UP death audit committee on Friday, concluded that oxygen supply had not been cut off during a mock drill. The committee further stated that the hospital was provided with 149 cylinders with 20 in reserve on April 25 and 121 cylinders with 15 in reserve on April 26, sufficient for its needs. The committee stated that hospital administration had misled patients on grounds of lack of oxygen and discharged them.

Death audit committee: 'Fatalities not due to lack of O2'

The committee further concluded that out of 16 dead, 14 had comorbidities and 2 didn't while 22 patients were severely critical. The Agra district magistrate informed that seven people had died initially over two days - April 26 & 27 due to COVID and not due to oxygen shortage. The Death audit committee has held private conversations with hospital staff and kin on April 28 and analysed symptoms of hypoxia and oxygen saturation levels of the patients.

Agra 'oxygen' horror

On June 8, Paras Hospital was put in the spotlight after a viral video showed the hospital owner claiming that he cut the oxygen supply during a mock drill allegedly claiming 22 lives.  In the video, the owner - Dr Arinjay Jain - claimed that a mock drill was conducted where the oxygen supply was shut and '22 people turned blue'. The has been sealed after patients admitted there were shifted to other hospitals.

Later, he denied that there was a mock drill at the hospital saying, "I used the phrase by mistake, or you could say in innocence. We checked the patients individually to see the minimum level of oxygen level at which they could be kept. The supply was not cut off”.

Dr. Jain informed that he is open to any investigation that will be carried out by the state government. He had also informed that the district administration had investigated and all available data and records were submitted to them by the hospital administration. Acting on the incident, the Uttar Pradesh government revoked the license of Paras Hospital and the owner has been booked.