Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was facing calls yesterday for his resignation after dozens of children died at a government hospital in the state that suffered oxygen shortages.
Adityanath visited the hospital yesterday as angry relatives rushed to the scene demanding answers.
At least 64 children died over six days at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, with the media reporting that 30 deaths on Thursday and Friday were from a lack of oxygen in the children’s wards.
Suppliers’ bills had allegedly not been paid, leading to a shortage that saw panicked families using artificial manual breathing bags to help their stricken loved ones.
Local officials have conceded there was a disruption to the oxygen supply at the hospital, but insist the deaths were caused by encephalitis and other illnesses, not a lack of available oxygen.
Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu priest from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, to leave no stone unturned as he toured the hospital in his signature saffron robes.
“If the investigation finds any authority guilty of negligence, he will not be spared at any cost,” Adityanath told reporters in Gorakhpur, the city he represented as MP for nearly two decades.
“The prime minister is very concerned and has called to offer all support,” Adityanath said.
He repeated that the deaths were caused by encephalitis – a mosquito-borne virus that every year ravages poorer, eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state with more than 200mn people.
But parents have recounted panic and horror as their children suddenly began gasping for air amid an apparent drop in oxygen, and nurses handed out manual pumps to aid their breathing.
“I am a poor man who doesn’t understand what happens here, but it was clear that day the oxygen wasn’t going up. The doctors and other staff here were very worried,” Ram Prasad, sitting by his two-year-old daughter’s bedside, said.
“They rushed to my kid too and gave us a manual pumping machine. It was the longest one-and-a-half to two hours of our lives. We spent the night pressing that machine so that nothing happened to our daughter.”
Others described the hospital in total chaos, with helpless parents carrying the lifeless bodies of their children, crying out for help.
“It was very sudden. We didn’t know what was happening,” Bechna Devi said beside her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Saroj.
“Every hospital staffer around us was in a rush and they simply told us to use that pump machine for our child.”
Nadda said a regional medical centre will be set up to research children’s diseases in Gorakhpur.
Gorakhpur’s Police Commissioner Anil Kumar said yesterday that 11 more children had died at the hospital on Saturday.
“But I reiterate, they were not due to lack of oxygen supply,” he said.
As anger grew, opposition parties and government critics led the charge for Adityanath’s resignation.
“The death of innocent children in Gorakhpur is a tragedy of epic proportions,” Sanjay Jha, a spokesman for the main opposition Congress Party, said.
“The fact that it happened in a state-run hospital is a manifestation of pathetic governance. The buck stops with CM Adityanath, as his government has clearly misplaced priorities. He should resign forthwith owning full moral responsibility.”
Adityanath refuted Congress’ allegations saying this was a time for compassion and not politics.
“Those whose sensitivity has died are now trying to rub salt on the wounds by raising this issue unnecessarily,” he said.
The Congress however charged that the state government trying to bury the truth.