Locked ICU with dead Covid patients, staff missing at hospital in Gurgaon: Report

At Kirti Hospital in Gurgaon, viral videos show families of Covid-19 patients entering the hospital to no staff including doctors

At least six Covid patients allegedly died at a hospital in Gurgaon, with three of them in the ICU, due to oxygen shortage.

At Kirti Hospital in Gurgaon, viral videos showed families of Covid-19 patients entering the hospital to no staff including doctors. Upon entering the ICU, they found only bodies. Reports claim these videos from 5-6 days ago.

The video has someone say "dead, dead..." while focusing on the patients laying still in the beds.

Angry relatives are seen in the video who see no staff around but were greeted by empty desks instead.

"Neither the doctor is here, nor the chemist... no one at the reception. There is not even a guard," a voice in the clip is heard as saying.

DH could not independently verify the video or claims.

In another video, angry relatives are seen arguing with policemen asking them how doctors abandoned patients in the time of need and leave them to die.

"How can you allow doctors to run away like this? Only someone who loses their loved ones can understand how we feel," said a man to two policemen who apparently just arrived.

According to an NDTV report, the hospital administration said that doctors did not abandon the building, just went into hiding for fear of being attacked by families over lack of oxygen.

Hospital Director Swati Rathore told the publication that government officials had been informed about lack of oxygen from 2 pm onwards.

"We had informed relatives of the patients from 4 pm to shift their patients due to the oxygen crisis. But no help came and there were six casualties around 11 pm," Dr Rathore said.

She claims that the staff had been told to hide in an effort to save their own lives as a few days prior, the hospital staff was attacked and assaulted by families of patients.

"I feared that my staff would lose their lives this time. The staff never left the hospital that night. They hid temporarily to save their lives," she said.

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However, claims over why the hospital took in Covid patients in the first place has also raised alarm.

The Gurgaon administration has claimed that the hospital is not a Covid hospital and they would conduct an enquiry into the deaths.

"Two-three facts are very clear, which were preliminary reported to me by the Chief Medical Officer. The hospital was not registered as a Covid centre with the CMO so it should not have taken Covid patients in the first place - because we monitor Covid hospitals very closely. So this hospital was not under that scrutiny. Secondly, the number of admitted patients was much higher. So whether it was sick patients who died or whether it was the oxygen crunch. At what time the SOS was raised and how the situation was handled will only come out in the inquiry report," said Yash Garg, Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon told the agency.