42 Children Die in the Last 48 Hours in Gorakhpur’s BRD Hospital

Around 105 children died at the same hospital in Gorakhpur earlier this month.

File image of relatives with their children suffering from Japanese Encephalitis at a hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. 

(Photo: PTI)

Forty two children have died in the last 48 hours at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur, less than two weeks after 105 children died at the state-run hospital. However, Hindustan Times reported that 61 children have died at the hospital in the last 72 hours. According to the daily, the deaths were reportedly due to various reasons, that include encephalitis, health complexities in newborns, pneumonia, sepsis etc, leading to the hospital being overcrowded.

Earlier, BDS Hospital Principal PK Singh said that there have been total 25 deaths in all till midnight on 28 August, of which seven were due to AES and the rest due to other complications like infections, pneumonia and other causes.

Clarifying that there was no shortage of staff, medicine or oxygen at the hospital, PK Singh said that in all 344 “on bed patients” were admitted in the ward and that of the 25 deaths, 10 had taken place in the neonatal intensive care unit and 15 in the paediatric intensive care unit thereby meaning that of the total 25 deaths, 10 were infants and other 15 children.

The UP administration has faced serious flak after Gorakhpur DM R Rautela’s report on the earlier cases confirmed that there was lack of oxygen supply in the hospital and had blamed “financial irregularities” for the delay in payment to the supplier.

An FIR had been registered on 25 August against nine persons, including the former principal of BRD Medical College.

More details on the encephalitis deaths are awaited.