Karnataka Assembly rocked by 2 ICU deaths, allegedly due to power cuts

Sources told South First that a project report — seeking 24×7 power supply through a transmission line from a substation near the APMC Yard substation on Bengaluru Road and another near the Allipura substation in Ballari — was submitted to the government in 2012 by the then VIMS superintendent Dr Lakshmi Narayan. However, the report, sources said, lies in cold storage.

The proposal, according to a senior doctor from the hospital, had sought connections so that the hospital’s need of 800 Kilowatt hours of power supply was fulfilled and the need for generators was reduced.

“This demand was not fulfilled, and the report is in cold storage. Every month the hospital used to then bill ₹3 lakh for the diesel cost of running the generators. Even now we don’t have good-quality generators. The power cuts are frequent due to some or the other reason,” a senior doctor from VIMS told South First.

What happened at the hospital?

VIMS Hospital in Bellary where two patients on ventilator died allegedly due to power snag in the ICU. (Supplied)

On Wednesday morning, there was a power shutdown between 8.30 am and 11 am at the hospital.

Several patients were seen struggling with no electricity in the hospital for almost two and a half hours.

“Coincidentally”, two patients — 35-year-old Maula Hussain and 30-year-old Chettamma — who were in the ICU battling for their lives on the ventilator died at the same time.

By evening, VIMS Director Dr Gangadhar Reddy refuted the allegations by the kin of the deceased that their demise was caused by the negligence of the hospital, with the power cut playing a role.

Patients inside the VIMS hospital in Bellary. (Supplied)

He said in a statement: “There have been no deaths due to power failure. Chettamma died due to a snake bite leading to internal bleeding, and Hussain was admitted to the hospital due to kidney failure and multiple organ failure, which led to his death.”

He added: “Patients come to VIMS in critical condition when treatment options in other hospitals have failed. So, the chances of patients dying are high due to their condition. It was a coincidence that the deaths happened during the power cut.”

Deputy Commissioner Pavan Kumar Malapati echoed this when he told reporters that the deaths were not related to power cuts but due to other causes as they were admitted to the hospital in a critical condition

Uproar in Karnataka Assembly

ICU ward of VIMS Hospital in Bellary. (Supplied)

The matter was raised in the Assembly on Thursday morning by the Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah. He said that the deaths were due to the government’s negligence.

He said, “The generator was not functioning during the power cut between 8 am and 10.30 am. The ICU patients died because there was no power supply or generator. The ventilator was not working, which led to their deaths.” He also directed blame to the district administration.

However, refuting the allegations, Ballari district minister B Sriramulu said he had spoken to the VIMS director and that the deaths were not due to the power cut.

He added that the hospital has a generator to provide backup of 1.5 hours and a UPS that can provide power for another 1.5 hours.

“The patients did not die due to power failure and there has been no negligence by hospital authorities,” he said.

Activists demand strict action, probe

Dr Sylvia Karpagam, a medical doctor and public health activist, told South First that this constant back-and-forth blame game when such preventable deaths take place within the healthcare setting has to stop because it helps neither the families nor the hospital.  Neither does it prevent further deaths nor improve structural factors.

“Finally, someone lower in the hierarchy gets a temporary suspension, but nothing else changes,” said Karpagam.

She opined that any unnatural or suspicious death should be investigated, that there should be long-term data on causes of such deaths, and that there should be appropriate analysis of this data.

Hospitals that do not furnish adequate data or doctors found providing false information should be severely penalised, she said.

“This will provide insight on issues that need addressing. For instance, if the VIMS Hospital shows several deaths over the course of time, then this needs to be addressed. The ministers often just do face-saving actions and there is a punitive approach to this issue,” she said.

Explaining the importance of providing closure to the families of these patients, Karpagam said the system should interact with them in a sympathetic and honest manner. If not, there would be a loss of faith in hospitals, doctors, healthcare staff, and the entire healthcare system.