Private hospital in Sylhet runs out of oxygen: one dead, many suffer
Oxygen crisis at the privately-owned Sylhet Community Based Hospital led to the death of a Covid-19 patient early Friday.
Till last night, a total of 54 Covid-19 patients were undergoing treatment at the hospital's isolation unit. Among them, 19 were admitted at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital.
At around 2:30 am, the hospital authority suddenly asked patients to leave the hospital saying that the oxygen supply ran out.
Thirteen patients, including 11 in the ICU, left the hospital in a hurry. Most managed to find seats at different hospitals' general beds.
But one patient, Kanchan Begum, died just after reaching Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital.
Bably Begum, daughter of the deceased, while speaking to The Daily Star, said, "The hospital authority suddenly said that the oxygen supply has run out. My mother was in critical condition. After managing an ambulance, we rushed to Osmani Medical College Hospital, but she died right before admission."
She said her family is still reeling in the trauma and they are not in the state to file written complaints to health officials.
Shwapna Begum, an elderly patient hailing from Moulvibazar's Kamalganj upazila, was also admitted to the hospital's ICU on July 9.
Her son Moin Uddin said his cousin was attending to his mother that night. At around midnight, his cousin noticed that the oxygen flow was reducing. The ICU in charge and others assured that there must be some issue with the line and will be solved soon.
"At around 2:00 am, when the hospital officials were unable to say what's wrong, I rushed to the hospital. The manager came in and we were told about the oxygen shortage and asked to transfer patients to some other hospital as soon as possible," he said adding that it was total mismanagement. "They had no backup oxygen supply and behaved unprofessionally by not informing patients' relatives hours before. More people could have died," he said.
Denying the allegation of not informing hours before, Dr Tarek Azad, managing director of the hospital, said, "We informed the patients' relatives at around 12:00 am when we understood that we will not be able to manage oxygen. Since we have a casualty in the process, the matter is being discussed now."
"We solely rely on suppliers for oxygen. Since the highway was locked, all three companies -- Linde, Spectra, and Islam -- failed to supply on time and we could not manage from other sources. 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 aware of the incident.
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