Gorakhpur tragedy: 70 children die in last 4 days at BRD hospital

70 children in total have died in the last four days in Gorakhpur's now infamous Baba Raghav Das (B.R.D.) Medical College, of which 15 deaths were caused due to Encephalitis, principal P.K. Singh has informed, adding that no deaths have been recorded as on the morning of August 31.

Singh stressed that most deaths are caused because malnourished children weighing less than a kilogram at birth come to the hospital. They also get infected and hence, survive for barely half to one hour.

It was found that almost five children are kept in one bed, and less warmers were provided at the hospital.

"We can't refuse children who are coming, but since the resources are falling short, we are keeping two to three children in one bed, but not five," the principal answered.

"We don't lack in the infrastructure, only the patient load has increased. We can't increase infrastructure at once, so the workload has increased," Singh added.

As told by the Principal, almost 4,000 patients come in the Out Patient Department (OPD) each day on average. Meanwhile, the hospital houses 950 beds and 90 per cent of those are occupied at a time.

Singh said that the hospital is working according to the human resource it has, but revealed that the patient-doctor ratio of 17:1 is less than the required 10:1 ratio.

"We keep submitting a proposal (for more human resource) to the government from time to time," he said.

Earlier in August, over 70 children had died in the same hospital due to lack of oxygen supply. The hospital, as well as the government, had received flak over the negligence.

On August 23, an FIR was registered against nine persons including the suspended principal of B.R.D. Medical College, Dr. Rajiv Mishra and two officials from the oxygen supplying agency the Pushpa Sales Private Limited.