Parents of dead children in Gorakhpur hospital, UP, describe ‘horror’ in detail

The parents of dead children recalled the horror they witnessed in the Gorakhpur hospital in Uttar Pradesh.

Lucknow, August 14: In a couple of days from now, the outrage over the tragic death of 63 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, would vanish, like all other human tragedies in the country.

While politicians would stop their blame games, the media would jump to another "big story" soon. But the scar of seeing their young ones dying due to "negligence on the part of the hospital authorities, bureaucrats, politicians and society at large" would haunt the parents of the dead children for long.

The children, including newborns, mostly suffering from the killer disease encephalitis, died allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply. While there are many versions cited by the authorities, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, regarding the cause of deaths, most parents alleged that the hospital authorities did not take necessary action to save their children.

One father, who lost his four-year-old son, told NDTV that the hospital looked like a "slaughterhouse" as children after children were dying in the wards. He added that the doctors and nurses did not even give their 10 per cent to help the sick children.

One couple, who lost their twins (a boy and a girl), told The Indian Express that the hospital lacks basic facilities like cotton gauze and glucose injections. The father of the children, Brahmdev, 30, a farmer from Bagagada village in Gorakhpur, said that he was poor and could not afford the expenses of a private hospital and that was the reason why he had admitted his kids in the government-run hospital.

However, since the time he got his children, who were suffering from high fever, admitted in the hospital he was repeatedly asked to buy medicines and blood on his own by the hospital people.

Finally, both his children died because there was no oxygen supply in the hospital. Brahmdev told The Indian Express that it was on August 7 when for the first time he noticed the oxygen-level indicator outside the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the BRD Medical College hospital.

"There were three levels--normal, high and low. On August 7, the indicator showed low," says Brahmdev. The helpless parents of the dead twins, just 10 days old, could do nothing but cry relentlessly, now.

Similarly, a father of another dead boy told The Telegraph that policemen asked him to leave the hospital after his child's death. Mrityunjay Singh of Padrauna, whose son was in the neonatal ward, said, "Hospital staff pushed us out of the ward on Wednesday evening. A few minutes later, a ward boy brought out my son's body. The police then asked me to leave the hospital immediately."

Vijay Lal of Kushinagar told television channels, "My 16-day-old daughter died in the paediatric ward. Policemen dropped me at the railway station in an auto-rickshaw and warned me not to return. I was scared."

According to The Telegraph report, after the news of the deaths of 30 children were highlighted on Friday evening, around 5,000 police personnel were posted in the hospital to avoid any "rebellion" by the parents of the dead children.

Several parents alleged that they were "terrorised" by the police after they lost their loved one.

OneIndia News