NEW DELHI: Amid the contradictory claims made by the Centre and Delhi government over the deaths of Covid patients due to shortage of medical oxygen, the relatives of victims are left in shock, anguish and grief as they recall how they lost their family members owing to the crisis.
“The medical superintendent of Jaipur Golden Hospital has, on record, admitted that patients died due to oxygen shortage. Relatives and attendants all are witness to the crisis. People lost their family members; all these cannot be a lie,” said Rajnish who lost his brother-in-law Manoj Kumar, 45, at the facility.
Rajnish said that while his brother-in-law succumbed on April 23, the death summary provided by the hospital said it happened on April 24 and that Manoj died due to cardiac arrest.
“The Delhi government too does not have any data on how many have died due to lack of oxygen. They even denied the fact that Covid patients died owing to the oxygen crisis at Jaipur Golden Hospital in April to the high court. Why didn’t the government acknowledge it then? It is all politics... It is a sorry state of affairs and we have no trust left on any government,” said Jagjyot Singh, who lost his 58-year- old mother on April 24 at the Jaipur Golden Hospital.
Eight families who had lost their members at the facility on April 23 and 24 had moved the court alleging death of their relatives was due to oxygen shortage. In May, during the hearing in the HC, a Delhi government committee claimed that the deaths of 21 patients on April 23-24 were due to comorbidities and not owing to lack of medical oxygen.
“It pains to see that the government came up with such a statement. They are lying to the core, about the oxygen crisis and deaths,” said Gaurav Gera, a resident of Adarsh Nagar, who lost his father at the hospital.
The HC’s next hearing on the plea of Jaipur Golden Hospital case will be heard next month but the relatives said they have less hope of getting justice. “If the governments are lying then what could we expect from the court... It is not going to be any different,” Gaurav lamented.