At about 10 a.m., alarm bells began to ring at Shahdol Medical College when the pressure of liquid medical oxygen, which has a direct supply to the hospital’s ICU unit, fell. It had 62 patients in its intensive care units.
Confirming the death, Milind Shiralkar, Dean of Shahdol Medical College, clarified that the oxygen level in the tank was running low on Saturday, and there was a demand to refill it. The truck carrying oxygen to refill the tank was on its way, but it came to a halt at Damoh because truck drivers should not drive after 12 a.m.
Shiralkar stated that the newly established medical college uses a dual oxygen supply scheme, one of which is a direct supply of liquid medical oxygen to various hospital units linked through pipes to an oxygen tank set up at the hospital. As a backup, the 245 jumbo oxygen cylinders are activated.
“Six critically ill COVID positive patients died on Sunday, but whether it was due to a reduction in oxygen supply cannot be determined since the hospital has a stock of jumbo oxygen cylinders that were put into service when the pressure of liquid medical oxygen dropped,” Shiralkar added.
He noted that the hospital’s liquid medical oxygen tank had not been refilled as of 11 a.m. on Sunday. “If poor oxygen supply was the cause of deaths, the deaths may have been on a much greater scale, since the hospital currently has at least 62 patients in its ICU unit alone, with a total of 255 Covid positive patients receiving care at the hospital,” Shiralkar said.
MP’s oxygen consumption has skyrocketed, with 64 metric tonnes consumed on March 22 increasing to 179 metric tonnes on April 7 and 234 metric tonnes the next day on April 8. MP’s demand stood at 330 metric tonnes on Saturday, with 63,889 active events, and is forecast to increase to 440 metric tonnes by April 20.
Madhya Pradesh does not have an oxygen processing plant. It currently buys 180 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen from INOX, with 70 metric tonnes coming from its Gujarat mine, 100 metric tonnes from Uttar Pradesh, and another 10 tonnes from Rajasthan.
