In 5 Days, 63 Indian Children Dead!

Baba Raghav Das Medical College, where 63 children have died in five days, is the biggest hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's home turf All India | Reported by Alok Pandey, Edited by Divyanshu Dutta Roy | Updated: August 12, 2017 21:11 IST GORAKHPUR, UTTAR PRADESH: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said he is personally monitoring the situation in Gorakhpur, where 63 children, many of them newborns, have died at one hospital in the last five days. The Chief Minister, who briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day, said in UP capital Lucknow that he has asked a team of top ministers to determine whether there were any child deaths due to a disruption in oxygen supply at the hospital, promising to "not spare anyone found guilty". 1. "Deaths due to oxygen shortage would mean a despicable incident," said the chief minister, adding, an inquiry has been ordered that will probe if there was lapse on part of the oxygen vendor. 2. Earlier today the chief of the Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur's biggest hospital, was suspended. The Chief Minister, who has represented Gorakhpur in parliament for nearly 20 years, had visited the state-run hospital on Wednesday. 3. Monitoring Gorakhpur, Top Officials There, Says Yogi Adityanath: 10 Points Baba Raghav Das Medical College, where 63 children have died in five days, is the biggest hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's home turf 4. Raids were conducted at the Lucknow-based firm that supplied oxygen to the hospital and had stopped because previous bills were not paid. 5. On Thursday morning, employees who handle the storage plant at the hospital from where oxygen is piped, wrote to the Chief Medical Officer informing him that the stock of liquid oxygen was limited and would last only till that evening. At around 11:30 pm on Thursday, the oxygen ran out. Fresh cylinders were brought in at around 1:30 am on Friday. 6. 23 children died at the hospital on Thursday, 14 of them in the neo-natal ward, where premature newborns are kept. While nine children died the previous day when the Chief Minister visited, nine on Monday, 12 on Tuesday and seven on Friday, according to the hospital. 7. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and others visited the hospital and demanded the resignation of UP's health minister. "Heart-wrenching incident. Saddened by children's death. This happened due to state government's carelessness," Mr Azad told reporters outside the hospital. Other opposition leaders are also expected to visit the hospital later in the day. 8. "Families of the dead were sent off with the bodies, they did not even do autopsies... extremely unfortunate," former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav alleged in a tweet. 9. "I am pained beyond words," said Congress President Sonia Gandhi, while her son and deputy Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Deeply pained. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. BJP government is responsible and should punish the negligent who caused this tragedy." 10. On his visit this week, Chief Minister Adityanath had inaugurated 10-bed ICU, a six-bed Critical Care Unit facility at the hospital, which gets a large number of encephalitis patients. Thousands have died of encephalitis in Gorakhpur since the first case was discovered in the 1970s. SOURCE: NDTV