What led to the 24 deaths in Chamarajanagar? Recounting a night of horror and heartbreak

The family of 19-year-old Keerthana. She passed away on a stretcher near the emergency ward of the Chamarajanagar district hospital. DH Photo  

40-year-old Guruprasad of Lakkur in Gundlupet taluk left behind a wife and two young children. His brother Sampath (in picture) said

Poornima, the wife of 49-year-old C G Babu, who passed away on May 2 in the ICU. His relatives said he was recovering from the illness at the Chamarajanagar district hospital when the tragedy struck. DH Photo 

Video grab of people outside the Chamarajanagar district hospital in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. DH Photo 

On May 2, 19-year-old Keerthana, an employee of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadi Kendra in Kollegal town in Chamarajanagar district, fell seriously ill, complaining of weakness and breathlessness. She was rushed to Kollegal taluk hospital, where she gave a Covid test but was referred to the Chamarajanagar district hospital, citing a lack of oxygen.

At the district hospital, she died, unattended, still on the stretcher, even as her parents were pleading with the hospital staff to treat her. Her Covid test returned positive a day after.

Keerthana was the youngest victim in the tragedy that unfolded at the Chamarajanagar district hospital on May 2, when 23 Covid patients and a few non-Covid patients died, allegedly due to the lack of oxygen. The tragedy began unfolding late at 8.30 pm and a majority of the deaths occurred in the three hours that followed.

Read | 41 days before Chamarajanagar tragedy, alert was sounded on low oxygen

In the media briefing and statements that followed, neither the district administration nor the hospital staff offered clarity on what exactly transpired that night in the hospital and what the Chamarajanagar district administration did to mitigate the crisis.

However, the accounts of the victims’ families show a clear lack of communication in the district administration, mismanagement of resources, a callous attitude on part of the hospital administration as well as the long-standing story of shortage of staff and poor medical infrastructure.

Problem of jurisdiction

The tragedy has affected people of all age groups and classes: Surendra, of Doddahomma in Nanjangud, had got married to Rani, a former nurse, just two months ago. Rani says her husband tested positive for Covid on April 27 and was advised to isolate at home.

As he experienced severe symptoms that afternoon, he went to the district hospital again but was denied admission, as Nanjangud is technically in Mysuru. Admitted in the Basavarajendra hospital, a private hospital in Chamarajanagar, he was referred to the district hospital again, for want of oxygen. There, he was shifted to the ICU on May 1.

“I gave him dinner at 8 pm on May 2. He spoke to me via video call at 10.30 pm. But during another call at 11.20 pm, he was sobbing and complaining of breathlessness, when somebody snatched his phone,” Rani said.

Sensing something amiss, Rani rushed to the hospital at midnight “but we were not allowed inside,” she said. An ambulance driver she knew said 10 oxygen cylinders had come from Mugur in Kollegal taluk.

“We were relieved. But when we went to the hospital at 6 am the next day, Surendra was not in his bed. There was nobody else in the beds in the ICU ward,” Rani said, recounting her horror.

C G Babu (49), a small business owner and a resident of Chikka Angadi Beedhi in Chamarajanagar town, was admitted to the hospital on April 30 and died on May 2.

“Babu was not in a condition to receive calls after 8 pm. I was calling Deputy Commissioner M R Ravi from 8.30 pm till the next day morning, but could not talk to him,” said his younger brother Chandrashekhar, a BJP councillor. Chandrashekhar said if he could not save his brother despite having the right contacts, what could be the plight of the common people?

Mohanraj Meghavat (60), an industrialist and Banjara leader, who is well-known across Chamarajanagar district, also passed away that night.

His wife, Padmavathi Bai, holds the hospital authorities responsible for the tragedy. “For 180 Covid patients, there was just one doctor on the night shift. The hospital authorities should have maintained a buffer of oxygen,” she said.

Meghavat’s brother, Jagadish, holds the DC responsible for the death of his brother and says he would take up the issue in the court of law.

Rajendra Babu, whose wife was admitted in the general ward, brought the issue to the attention of the media. He calls how heart-wrenching it was to watch people mourn the deaths of their loved ones. Rajendra Babu too says he made multiple calls to the DC and his PA on the night of the tragedy, but the calls did not go through.

“Several people who did not get admitted into the Emergency ward have died for want of oxygen. Such deaths have gone unaccounted,” Babu said.

Poor infrastructure

The unpreparedness of Chamarajanagar’s health infrastructure was on display even three years ago, on December 14, 2018, when 17 people died and hundreds fell ill after consuming prasada laced with poison during a ceremony at a temple in Hanur taluk. The victims then had to be rushed to the KR hospital in Mysuru for treatment.

Even today, there are just seven hospitals, including two private hospitals that are treating Covid patients in a district that saw nearly 667 Covid cases on May 8.

As far back as March 24, the Critical Care Support Unit (CCSU), headed by Dr K V Thrilok Chandra, which monitors the progress of Covid-19 patients in Intensive Care Units of various designated Covid hospitals across the state, had categorised the Chamarajanagar district hospital ‘red’, flagging its low availability of oxygen.

A 6,000 litre oxygen tank was inaugurated on April 29 by the district-in-charge minister S Suresh Kumar and its picture tweeted by the Health Minister Dr Sudhakar K, even as the state administration faced mounting criticism regarding the lack of preparedness.

Mismanagement, miscommunication

Even before the hospital was barely through the crisis, the shifting of blame had begun, with Deputy Commissioner M R Ravi and district-in-charge minister Suresh Kumar blaming Rohini Sindhuri, the Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru, for the incident.

Chamarajanagar MP V Srinivas Prasad said he had spoken to M R Ravi at 9 pm on May 2. “When I asked him if there was any problem, he replied that everything was under control. If he had discussed the issue of oxygen shortage in advance, lives could have been saved,” he said.

“Now, the probe by the government and court should find out what went wrong,” Prasad added.

Former MP R Dhruvanarayana alleged that neither the deputy commissioner nor the district-in-charge minister was aware of the tragedy till the morning of May 3.

“The doctors had mentioned the oxygen shortage on Saturday [May 1] itself. When I contacted the DC and mentioned it [the shortage], he said the situation was under control,” Dhruvanarayana said.

“When I received an alert at 9 pm on Sunday, I called the DC and the district-in-charge minister but could not reach both. The DC called back at 11.30 pm and still assured me everything was under control. Suresh Kumar called back only on Monday morning,” he said.

“He [Ravi] has made not a single call to the Mysuru DC,” said Kodagu-Mysuru MP Pratap Simha.

Simha said 65 Oxygen cylinders were sent to Chamarajanagar at 2 am on Monday on humanitarian grounds after he got to know of the situation there. “Still, the Chamarajanagar DC is blaming the Mysuru district administration for the tragedy.”

Judicial probe

To clear the dust from the squabble in the aftermath of the incident, no less than three probes are underway. One is by IAS officer Shivayogi Kalasad, ordered by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on May 3. The second one is a one-man commission of inquiry by retired High Court judge B A Patil, appointed on May 5.

However, the High Court expressed its displeasure about the manner in which the government constituted the commission, observing that it overreached and should have left the appointment of the commission to the court.

A special division bench, headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, directed the chief secretary to seize all records pertaining to the incident.

Also Read | Karnataka appoints retired HC judge to probe Chamarajanagar deaths

The court also directed a committee under Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA), headed by retired High Court judge A N Venugopala Gowda, to peruse the records and submit a report by May 10.

The government now says the situation has since improved. The district-in-charge minister S Suresh Kumar has said that since all the beds in the district hospital are occupied, Covid patients will be admitted to the new hospital building on the premises of Chamarajanagar Institute of Medical Sciences, shortly.

Damage control

“Currently, there is no shortage of oxygen supply in Chamarajanagar District Hospital. We have a 6,000 litre capacity oxygen tank. Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar has assured of supplying 7,000 litres of oxygen every day. The power plants in the district have agreed to supply 1,500 to 2,000 oxygen cylinders. Hence, the possibilities of oxygen shortage are less,” Kumar said.

He also added that the constitution of a 15-member Covid task force will see the issues get under control.

However, an oxygen supplier in Mysuru, who caters to Kodagu, Hassan, Mandya and Chamarajanagar districts, said, “With the rising demand, we are not able to get sufficient liquid oxygen from Ballari, as we do not have an adequate number of cryogenic tankers. Now, we are under immense pressure from influential officials and elected representatives.”

Even as the government takes steps to control the damage, its efforts are overshadowed by insensitive statements made by Health Minister Dr Sudhakar K on May 4, who said only three people had died due to lack of oxygen, even as the bodies had piled up in the hospital.

In the end, neither the government probes, nor the aggressive posturing or the retrospective action by the administration will restore the lives of the people lost in what was an entirely avoidable tragedy, lives of people like Guruprasad (40), survived by his wife and two young daughters aged five and nine, or Jayashankar (37), who also leaves behind a wife and two young daughters.

“An ITI-trained professional, Jayashankar had been to Germany from his previous company in Bengaluru. He had recently bought a car. Coming from a humble family in Kollegal, he had come up on his own,” said Jayashankar’s brother-in-law Siddaraju.

“We pleaded with the doctors and convinced them to treat Jayashankar. But after the problem with the oxygen started, all our efforts to save him failed.”