18 patients die in Chennai private hospital following flood – Govt. unhelpful but blames hospital, but hospital claims to have done its best
18 patients died between Dec 2-3 at the MIOT International Hospital in Chennai. The hospital has stated that loss of power and no timely help led to the death of those on ventilators. The government however says, it extended full support and is blaming the hospital.
Following flooding across Chennai, the hospital’s compound wall broke and MIOT’s electrical equipment was damaged. The managing director – Prithivi Mohandas says that loss of power led to the death of patients on ventilator support. The government however says they responded to a distress call on Dec 3rd and supplied oxygen cylinders. The government is also saying that hospital had no standby generators to backup the flooded electrical units and that the flooding at MIOT wasn’t ‘critical enough’ to require boats.
The hospital authorities refrained from informing patients relatives so that a riot situation wouldn’t break out at the hospital, which was already facing a tough time with no food, rising water levels and lack of communications.
The government in the mean time has blamed the hospital and ordered a probe. Chief Secretary K. Gnanadesikan has placed the entire blame on MIOT. In a press conference he said, “You all know MIOT hospital is located in a low-lying area. It’s the responsibility of a big hospital like MIOT to have adequate power supply, power generator. The management had completely abandoned the patients, and the law will now take its own course. The State government took extraordinary efforts with this; we have walked the extra mile.”
All 14 bodies of the patients were being brought to the Govt. Hospital – Royapettah Thursday night onwards for post-mortem while other 4 bodies were sent thome.
On Friday, chaos and confusion was visible at both MIOT and the government hospital as angry relatives alleged that they hadn’t received any communications from MIOT about the death of their loved ones. Relatives only found out about the deaths when it was broadcast on the news. Others were moving around from hospital to hospital looking for their relatives for hours.
MIOT didn’t have any representatives at Royapettah Hospital on Friday evening. Meanwhile, Director of Medical Education S. Geethalakshmi told reporters there that “they had received 14 bodies from MIOT hospital and it had told the authorities that most of the patients had been in a critical condition and had died of natural causes.” Hospital administrators said they had created a special help desk for relatives to identify their kin.
Key Points –
Pending the investigation into these 18 deaths, it is important to
Firstly, the government claims to have provided oxygen cylinders but importantly didn’t try to help restore power or provide back up power to MIOT. This would have helped MIOT restart the ventilators and save these patients. Instead the government simply provided oxygen cylinders without restoring electricity to help the ventilators function.
Secondly, with the floods in Chennai wrecking havoc, MIOT has a tough task to handle basic medical facilities. Additionally, trying to restore power can mean dealing with a high risk of electrocution and possibly losing whatever little power the hospital currently has. The hospital would’ve done its best to help these 18 patients but following their death sent the bodies to the government hospital where relatives could access and recover their bodies.
Image Credits : The Hindu
