Severe Oxygen Crisis Hits GIMS Hospital in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi, ICU Patients Struggle Amid Power Failure | VIDEO

Kalaburagi: A severe oxygen crisis has hit the GIMS Hospital in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district on Sunday, leaving ICU patients with respiratory issues in critical condition. The crisis was due to a power failure and the hospital didn’t have enough power backup, told a hospital staff off record to Republic reporter. The power outage caused the ventilator and oxygen supply systems nonfunctional leaving patients, including those undergoing respiratory and cancer treatments, in a dire situation.

Republic has accessed videos from the hospital capturing the chaotic moments in the ICU. This has raised widespread concern among the people in Karnataka about the vulnerability of critical patients in case of such never foreseen failures.

The videos show the hospital staff manually pumping oxygen using hand pumps to keep patients breathing. The chaotic scenes from the ICU ward, where many post-surgery patients were admitted, captured the suffering of the patients and their families.

The crisis came amidst recent claims by Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr. Sharanaparakash Rudrappa Patil, who hails from the same district, that the government would upgrade the state’s hospitals to the next level. However, the recent oxygen crisis has raised multiple questions on the promptness of the state’s healthcare systems to handle emergencies. 

The Hospital or the State government are yet to issue a statement.