22 patients were killed at a hospital in Agra as a “mock drill” was carried on them by cutting off their oxygen supply by the hospital owner.
Uttar Pradesh: The owner of Paras Hospital Arinjay Jain was caught saying in the 1.5-minute audio clip from April 28 boastfully: I Cut Off Oxygen, Patients “Turned Blue” He supposedly made the claims amid an acute shortage of oxygen at his hospital during a furious COVID storm in UP.
Apparently, Paras Hospital cut off oxygen supply on April 27 for five minutes in a “mock drill” amid what the owner claimed was an acute shortage of oxygen at his hospital during the COVID surge.
Arinjay Jain, the owner of Paras Hospital in UP said, “We were told that even the Chief Minister cannot get oxygen, so start discharging patients. Modi Nagar is dry. We started counseling families. Some were willing to listen but the others said they would not leave. I said ok let’s do a mock drill. We will find out who will die and who will survive. So we did that at 7 am. A mock drill was done. No one knows. Then we identified 22 patients. We realized they would die. This was done for 5 minutes. They started turning blue,” can be heard saying in the 1.5-minute audio clip from April 28.
The Uttar Pradesh government has said it will carry out an inquiry after the owner of a prominent private hospital in Agra was allegedly caught on audio bragging about this.
In a statement to the media, Agra District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh claimed there was no death due to lack of oxygen on that day the alleged video was recorded. However, he said a probe would be conducted.
“Initially, there was some panic and shortage but we sorted all that out in 48 hours. In this hospital, there have been seven Covid deaths on the 26th and 27th of April. The hospital also has a lot of other ICU beds. There is no truth that 22 people died but we will carry out an inquiry,” Mr. Singh said in a statement.
After the audio clip was widely circulated, the hospital owner said that his statements were misunderstood. “We too had received instructions from the administration for judicious and rational use of oxygen. In the third week of April, we categories our patients into those who were on high flow and those on low flow (of oxygen),” Mr. Jain said.
“We had to find out the oxygen dependency of the patients to understand how we can handle the situation if there is an oxygen shortage or if the supply gets over… Mock drill means taking stock of the situation before facing an issue, to understand how to work in an emergency. We had categorized the patients…We categorized COVID patients to see which patient needs how much oxygen… A mock drill does not mean switching off a patient’s oxygen. We did not switch off oxygen. I did not clearly say so in the video. I said a mock drill was done at 7 am. In this, 22 patients were segregated.”
However, it was clearly said in the audio that the patients turned blue and were dying without oxygen and 22 deaths were recorded in the hospital.
During April there was an acute oxygen shortage crisis while the Yogi government denied it and hundreds of frantic people were lining outside oxygen plants, while patients were gasping for oxygen. Desperate attempts to buy oxygen in UP were shown in visuals while the Chief Minister tried to silence those voices and even arrest people for asking for oxygen. Criminal action was also taken against a Lucknow hospital for allegedly lying about oxygen shortage!
Even though hospitals treating coronavirus patients across Uttar Pradesh had frequently complained of oxygen shortages, mostly, the Yogi government denied this and claimed all attempts were made to supply oxygen on time.
Rahul Gandhi top Congress leader tweeted: “There is a severe shortage of both oxygen and humanity under the BJP rule. Action should be taken immediately against all those responsible for this dangerous crime.
My condolences to the families of the deceased in this hour of grief.
भाजपा शासन में ऑक्सीजन व मानवता दोनों की भारी कमी है।
इस ख़तरनाक अपराध के ज़िम्मेदार सभी लोगों के ख़िलाफ़ तुरंत कार्यवाही होनी चाहिए।दुख की इस घड़ी में मृतकों के परिवारजनों को मेरी संवेदनाएँ। pic.twitter.com/CYoBB0mJWe
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 8, 2021
22 patients died at a hospital in Agra as a "mock drill" was carried out at them by cutting off Oxygen supply. This is outrageous at so many levels.
MOCK DRILL ON CRITICAL PATIENTS?
This is possible only in UP under best CM of world where human life has little or no value.
— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) June 8, 2021
This drastic horror is nothing short of murder. It appears Yogi’s UP is truly getting out of hand with no fear of law or reprisals on playing with lives just for “fun.” Can anyone even imagine the pain of the people who lost their loved ones to a “game?” It is shocking that the media is quite placid in reporting it too.