Another life lost to mismanagement?
On Thursday night, there were 54 patients admitted to the Covid-19 unit of a privately-owned Sylhet Community Based Hospital in the city.
Of them, 19 were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Around midnight, the oxygen supply started decreasing and the patients were asked to leave the hospital less than an hour before the oxygen completely ran out around 2:30am.
Thirteen patients, including 11 from the ICU, left the hospital as soon as they could. Most managed to find seats at different hospitals' general beds.
However, for Kanchan Begum, a critical Covid patient, the lack of oxygen became fatal. She passed away just after reaching Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital.
"They suddenly informed us that they ran out of oxygen. My mother was in a dying condition. Managing an ambulance, we rushed to Osmani hospital. She died before she could be admitted there," her daughter Bably Begum told The Daily Star.
"The way the hospital authorities handled the situation, it was not right. We want justice for my mother," she said. "We are still reeling from the shock and not in a state to file a written complaint to health offices," she added.
Meanwhile, a video was uploaded that night on Facebook, where the patient's family members were seen crying inside an ambulance beside the body. They were seen blaming the Sylhet Community Based Hospital authorities in front of the hospital, after returning from Osmani hospital.
Other patients also had to suffer due to the oxygen crisis.
Shwapna Begum, an elderly patient from Moulviabazar's Kamalganj upazila, had been receiving treatment at the hospital's ICU since July 9.
Her son Moin Uddin said, "That night, my cousin was attending to my mother and around midnight he saw that the oxygen flow was decreasing. The ICU in-charge and others said there might be some glitch in the line and it will be fixed soon."
"Around 2am, when the staffers at the reception could not say for sure what went wrong, I rushed to the hospital. Then the manager informed us about the oxygen shortage and asked us to transfer the patients to other hospitals as soon as possible," he said.
Moin said, "At 2:30am, the oxygen ran out completely. It was a horrific situation at the ICU. I managed an ambulance and rushed to Osmani hospital where I admitted my mother in the general bed."
"It was total mismanagement. They had no backup oxygen supply. They should have informed patients before it was too late. Many more lives could have been lost due to their mishandling of the situation that night," he said.
Denying the allegation, Dr Tarek Azad, managing director of the hospital, said, "We informed the patients around midnight when we understood we won't be able to manage oxygen."
He said since someone died, the matter is being discussed now.
"We solely rely on our suppliers. But as there was a gridlock on the highway, all three companies -- Linde, Spectra and Islam -- failed to supply oxygen on time and we could not manage it from any other source," he said.
"This is a desperate situation but we are struggling to serve the people," he said.
Contacted, Sylhet civil surgeon Dr Premananda Mandal said he was not informed of the incident and will look into it.
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