As many as four patients have died at Pabna General Hospital due to a shortage of oxygen, according to relatives of the deceased.
They died while they were undergoing treatment at the hospital between 12pm Sunday and 12pm Monday, said Pabna General Hospital Acting Assistant Director Dr Saleh Mohammad Ali.
The deceased were identified as Rashida Begum, 60, Rokeya Khatun, 60, Noor Alam, 67, and Nazmul Islam, 62.
Seeking anonymity, a duty doctor at the Covid-19 unit said: “The pressure of Covid-19 patients is increasing at the hospital as the infection rate continues to rise.
“Even after coming to the hospital, the patients need to collect oxygen from outside. Patients are dying due to the lack of oxygen supply,” he added.
Md Alamgir Hossain, the eldest son of deceased Rashida, said: “My mother was hospitalized in the Covid-19 unit of the Hospital on Sunday afternoon with a cold and breathing complications. There was an oxygen crisis from the beginning.”
The hospital failed to provide oxygen despite repeated requests, and his mother eventually died without receiving any.
“Every single patient of the hospital was suffering severely. Three patients died in front of me due to lack of oxygen,” Hossain added.
He also complained about the treatment facilities at the hospital, claiming that nurses were hardly attending to their duties.
Mamun Hossain, a relative of a hospitalized patient, said: “There are hardly any treatment facilities in the hospital. My sister was hospitalized 12 days ago. We didn’t get our test result, despite giving a sample the day after her admission to the hospital. Because of that, she is still admitted to the Covid-19 unit even though she has already recovered.”
Dr Saleh Mohammad Ali said: “Most of the deceased patients came to the hospital too late. There was hardly anything we could do.”
He admitted that there is a huge oxygen crisis at the hospital due to the lack of a central oxygen system. The authority has started supplying oxygen in large bottles, but the amount is insufficient considering the pressure of patients.
