Rautela had told local TV channels that 17 children had died in the neo-natal ward, five in the ward meant of patients suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome and eight in the general ward.
However, in a significant admission, the DM said that he had spoken to Pushpa Sales Company, which supplies oxygen to the hospital, and was told that the hospital owed Rs 70 lakh. He visited the hospital two days before to review its functioning. But despite his visit, no adequate majors were taken to ensure the safety of children.
Uttar Pradesh officials are conducting an investigation of the matter, said a senior state government official. Death toll reaches to 32.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said he is deeply pained.
The city is the former Parliamentary constituency Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath. CM is taking information on phone from concerned officials. The cause for the deaths of innocent kids is being cited as the firm supplying oxygen cylinders stopped supply of the life saving stuff for pending bill of Rs 69 lakh. In a statement released to the media Friday evening, the government denied media reports stating oxygen shortage as the reason behind the deaths.
It further added: "The news of the death of many patients admitted to hospital in the past few hours due to the lack of oxygen run on some channels is misleading. We had requested the suppliers not to disrupt supply", District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela had said. Hospital tried to supply the oxygen by its recently installed liquid oxygen plant, but as the capacity of the plant was low itself, no substantial supply could be given.
The sorry state of affairs, however, may not deter the Chief Minister from fast-tracking his AIIMS-for-Gorakhpur project, even though the existing healthcare infrastructure is a shambles.
The BRD medical college has been recording deaths of children from mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis and acute encephalitis syndrome for years. Last year, 224 children were died due to the dreaded disease encephalitis.
The alleged disruption of oxygen supply led to the deaths of 30 children at a hospital in Gorakhpur on Friday.
There are two major types of this deadly disease. In primary encephalitis, it infects the brain and spinal cord of patients and another type occurs after infections in other parts of the body and then travels to patient's brain.