3 Madurai GRH patients on ventilator die during outage

After three patients undergoing treatment at the Madurai Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) died in quick succession during a power outage on Tuesday evening, relatives of the deceased alleged that the deaths were caused due to ventilator-failure during the outage and blamed the hospital management for their deaths.

The deceased have been identified as Malliga (58), Ravindran (52) and Palaniammal (60). Their kin alleged that the ventilators attached to the patients had been turned off due to the outage.

Ganesan, a relative of Malliga, said she was admitted to the GRH in May after suffering head injury. “She recovered to an extent, but ventilator failure led to her death. None in the hospital used a generator either,” he said, adding, when the patient was critical, treatment was provided in the last minute via mobile phone light. “To cover up their folly, the hospital management denied us entry to the ward,” he said. Malliga underwent surgery at a private hospital and was later referred to the GRH on May 6 and was on ventilator support. Hospital officials said, the patient suffered a cardiac arrest at 6 pm and was declared dead at 6.55 pm.

Ravindran (52), who suffered a fall and was admitted to the GRH on May 5, suffered haemorrhagic contusion before dying of cardiac arrest at 7 pm, while Palaniammal (60), victim of an accident, died of cardiac arrest at 6.15 pm. K Vanitha, Dean, GRH, denied the allegations and attributed their deaths to cardiac arrest. “Thunderstorm caused drop in power voltage at 5.55 pm. Power supply was later suspended at 6.20 pm to 7.20 pm but the ventilators continued functioning with battery support,” she said. Nine patients were on ventilator support. A report on the deaths has been sent to the State Health Secretary.