15 COVID patients died from 2 am to 6 am at GMC on Thursday

Panaji: The oxygen crisis at the Goa Medical College and Hospital continued as several wards of the hospital, where COVID-19 patients are being treated, reportedly had dangerously low levels of oxygen in the wee hours of Thursday.

The authorities failed to act in time, and 15 patients reportedly died from 2 am to 6 am at the GMC on Thursday.

In a series of tweets, media entrepreneur Shruti Chaturvedi, who also currently runs the ‘Covid Care Goa’ initiative along with her team of volunteers, drew the attention of the authorities about the shortage of oxygen at the GMC.

“Confirmed at 2.10 am: There is oxygen shortage again. Doctor at ward 147 says only 3 cylinders left. The drop has happened second time tonight. Patients on ventilator are being affected. @[email protected]_NorthGoa pls someone speak with the docs at GMC. They are panicking! (sic),” she tweeted at 2:13 am.

Police officials and officials of the health department reached the GMC around 3 am to address the issue and detected that the problem was in the central line of oxygen supply.

However, Chaturvedi claimed that even after one hour after the officials arrived the required pressure of oxygen flow was not restored.

“Doc says this can cause severe brain damage to the patients and even death! (sic),” she tweeted uploading a 33 second audio-video shot from the ward 147.

In another tweet, Chaturvedi stated that ward 144, 145, 146, 143, 149 were also witnessing fluctuation in the oxygen supply.