The relatives of the deceased Yasodha, 67 from Muruganandapuram and Gowravan, 59 from Venkadesapuram claimed that an oxygen short supply following power outage led to their unexpected deaths. However, the District Administration and hospital authorities refuted these charges.

Early in the day, the electric line to the COVID-19 ward has got snapped during work to demolish a portion of the hospital’s old building.

“My aunt Yasodha was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after she tested COVID-19 positive and developed breathlessness. She was fine till this morning. A power outage occurred around 10 am resulting in short supply of oxygen to the patients. They were convinced by the doctors that oxygen flow would resume when power returns. Bit with the power cut stretching for about three hours, my aunt and one other person died, while two other critical patients were shifted to another ward,” said Prakash, a relative of the deceased. Relatives of Gowravan also alleged that his health condition was stable till the power cut happened. Family members of other patients on ventilator support in the ward also claimed that they faced breathlessness due to ventilator failure following power cut.

Meanwhile Tirupur District Collector K Vijayakarthikeyan, who inspected the hospital following the incident, said that the electric line to the ward had been snapped during the ongoing building work at the hospital around 11am.

“There was no power for 40 minutes in the COVID-19 ward as the electric line was snapped. However as there was alternative power back up arrangements, the oxygen supply to patients remained uninterrupted. Only the two patients died at the time of power cut,” he said.

The Collector further said that the two, who died, were already categorised as severely sick in a report given by the hospital to the District Administration on Sunday night itself.

“All others are stable and continue to be treated. A notice has also been issued to the contractor and action would be initiated against him for negligence during work,” he said.