30 children dead in 48 hours after oxygen supply shuts down at Gorakhpur hospital

As many as 30 children lost their lives due to encephalitis in last 48 hours at Gorakhpur's BRD Hospital.

Hospital sources said the agency responsible for the supply of oxygen stopped it last night, leading to the death of around 20 children on Thursday, at least 12 of whom were suffering from encephalitis. Ten more deaths were reported Friday evening.

However, the district magistrate Rajeev Rautela denied the report of deaths due to lack of oxygen supply.

At a press conference, the DM said that 30 deaths have been reported in the past 48 hours.

However, the DM



categorically denied that the deaths were due to shortage of oxygen supply.He said 17 children died in the neo-natal ward, 5 in AES (acute encephalitis syndrome) ward and 8 in the general ward.

An inquiry committee has been set up to ascertain the exact causes of the deaths and it has been asked to submit its report by tomorrow evening.

The incident comes barely two days after the visit of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to the hospital to review its functioning. Gorakhpur, where the hospital is located, is the Lok Sabha constituency of the Chief Minister.