MADURAI: In less than 15 minutes, three patients in ward number 101 — the Neuro Intensive Care Unit — at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) died on Tuesday night during a power outage caused by heavy rain in the city. Relatives of the deceased, who had been on ventilator support, alleged that the machines stopped working during the outage. However, the hospital claimed the ventilators had continued to function through battery back-up that is supposed to last for two hours.
The deceased were identified as G Ravindran (52) of Ayan Karisalkulam village in Srivilliputhur, M Mallika (58) of Poonchuthi village in Melur and P Palaniammal (60), resident of Ottanchathiram. According to relatives of the deceased, the annexe block (Trauma Care Centre) of GRH suffered a power outage from 5.30 pm till 7.15 pm on Tuesday, plunging the hospital in darkness.
“The hospital generator too failed and the patients were left in darkness,” said Ravindran’s brother-in-law P Pandi Muniyappan. Mallika’s son-in-law A Ganesan said, “During the power outage, my mother-in-law suffocated and was declared dead minutes later, despite efforts to resuscitate her.”
Pandi Muniyappan said doctors and nurses in the ward attended to patients with mobile phone torches. Ganesan and Pandi Muniyappan alleged the ventilators stopped functioning during the outage, disrupting supply of oxygen to the three patients, leading to their deaths.
GRH Dean Dr K Vanitha admitted the generator stopped functioning. “But, the ventilators, which are equipped to function to a maximum of two hours using battery back-up, in the absence of power supply, worked during the power outage,” she said. Mallika died at 6.55 pm, Ravindran at 7 pm and Palaniammal at 7.05 pm, she added.
While Ravindran and Palaniammal were being treated for head injuries, Mallika had undergone surgery for aneurysm at a private hospital on April 18 and was on life support since being admitted at GRH.
“All three of them were already in a serious condition and they died after developing cardio-pulmonary arrest, which is a common cause of death in patients with head injuries,” she said.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s Resident Medical Officer Dr A Srilatha said the Neuro ICU had 15 patients in the ward on Tuesday, of which seven were on ventilator support. Three of the seven had died on Tuesday.
However, relatives of the deceased patients agitated against the hospital administration and sought an explanation for the deaths.
Subsequently, an autopsy was performed on the bodies of the three deceased patients and a detailed report on the incident was submitted by the Dean to the State Health Secretary Beela Rajesh.
Two more patients who were admitted in the hospital died several hours later. While Chellathai (55) of Madurai, admitted at Triage ward, died on Tuesday night at 11.30 pm, N Arumugam of Udumalaipet, admitted at the Neuro ICU, died at 6.15 am on Wednesday.
The Dean maintained that these two deaths were not related to the lack of ventilation support.