Agra administration to seal hospital whose owner claimed 22 people died in O2 ‘mock drill’

The district administration also issued a statement disputing the claims of 22 people having died, instead saying only seven people died on 26 April and not due to oxygen shortage.

Paras Hospital in Agra | By special arrangement

Lucknow: The Agra administration Tuesday denied claims that 22 people had died on 26 April at a prominent private hospital in the city. It, however, has decided to seal the hospital. 

This after a video went viral, in which Dr Arinjay Jain, owner of Paras Hospital in Agra, is heard saying that on 26 April, he got the oxygen supply of patients cut as a “mock drill of who all were going to survive”. The doctor had claimed that this was due to an oxygen crisis in the city at the height of the second Covid-19 wave. 

“In our investigation it has been revealed that this viral video is of 28th April 2020.  FIR has been filed against the hospital administration under epidemic act as he (owner) was lying about shortage of oxygen at Modinagar oxygen plant, which was not true,” a statement by the district administration said. “The hospital building is to be sealed, and the remaining patients to be shifted to other hospitals. We also want to make clear that 22 patients did not die. Only seven died but not due to shortage of oxygen.”

In a statement earlier Tuesday, Agra District Magistrate Prabhu N. Singh also reiterated that 22 patients did not die at the hospital on that day. He said that on 26 April and 27 April, only seven patients died at Paras Hospital, and not due to the acute oxygen shortage.

“When we heard about the oxygen shortage on 26th April, we helped the hospital by arranging the oxygen cylinders,” the statement reads. “On 26th, four patients died and the next day, three more patients died but their deaths were not due to a shortage of oxygen. We got to know about a viral video, the content of the video is being investigated in detail.”

Singh also tweeted Tuesday, questioning media houses that ran stories on the viral video clip.  

“Run a big headline & put one ? mark at the end. Run a sensational story; put some numbers & use the word “allegedly”,” he tweeted. “What few Hindi dailies used to do; now some reputed English ones are doing.”

~Run a big headline & put one ? mark at the end

~ Run a sensational story;put some numbers & use the word “allegedly”

~what few Hindi dailies used to do; now some reputed English ones doing

~sad phase “when feels like cross verifying the authenticity of newspaper articles”

— Prabhu N Singh (@PrabhuNs_) June 8, 2021

 

Agra Chief Medical Officer R.C. Pandey told ThePrint that a committee will probe the contents of the viral video. “We have taken cognisance of the video. A committee has been constituted to investigate the matter,” he said.  

Video that went viral

In the viral video, which has even been shared by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jain is heard saying he cut off oxygen supply to critical patients for five minutes. 

“There was an acute shortage of oxygen. We were asking people to discharge their patients but no one was ready. So I decided to do an experiment, a mock drill happened,” he is heard saying.

“We cut off oxygen supply for five minutes at 7 am on 26 April. Twenty two patients started gasping for breath. These 22 patients, both in the Covid and non-Covid wards, did not make it out alive. Then family members of the remaining 74 patients in the ICU wards were told to bring their own oxygen cylinders.”

Later, speaking to the media, Jain did not deny the viral video but said his statements were being “misunderstood”.  

“We had conducted a mock drill to identify critical patients out of all, so that we could better serve them,” he said. “Four Covid-19 patients died on 26 April and three on 27 April.”

‘We want proper investigation’

Agra residents who lost family members on the day, now want the government to conduct a thorough probe. 

“My father died on 26 April due to a shortage of oxygen; my wife died the next day due to negligence in treatment. We had even informed the hospital about the shortage of oxygen,” Amit Chawla, a resident of Agra, told ThePrint.

“Now I have a doubt that there was something caused by the hospital administration. A viral video is also showing this. We want a proper investigation on the issue.”

Another Agra resident, Mayank Chawla, echoed the views. Mayank told ThePrint that his grandfather had died in the hospital on 26 April.

Agra police officials, however, told ThePrint that they have not received any formal complaint in the matter so far. A senior police officer said they will investigate if health authorities approach them.

(Edited by Arun Prashanth)