Short circuit stops central oxygen line, 20 Covid-19 patients evacuated from CV Raman General hospital

An electric short circuit caused the centralised oxygen line to stop at CV Raman General Hospital in Indiranagar, a dedicated Covid-19 hospital. As many as 20 Covid-19 patients in the High Dependency Unit (HDU) were evacuated in an emergency and shifted to three other hospitals in the city in the wee hours of Saturday.

The hospital currently has 175 Covid-19 beds and has 80-90 patients. The oxygen supply was cut to 20 Covid-19 patients whose oxygen saturation was low. Immediately beds were identified in other hospitals, and patients had to traverse significant distances across the city to get to other health facilities when time was of essence.

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16 Covid-19 patients were sent to Victoria Hospital near K R Market, which is 10 km away from CV Raman General hospital. One Covid-19 patient was shifted to the ICU at Vydehi Hospital in Whitefield, 13 km away, and one patient was put on a ventilator in an ICU in Fortis Hospital, Cunningham Road, eight km away.

Two patients were shifted to Mahaveer Jain Hospital, Millers Road, seven km away from CV Raman General Hospital. Dr Bhaskar Rajkumar, a radiologist, deputed as nodal officer in BBMP East Zone who is the overall in-charge of the zonal control room told DH, "The supply was cut around 10.30 pm on Friday. We got the information at around 10:45 pm-11 pm. Ambulances reached the hospital at 11:15 pm. We completed shifting the patients by 12.15 am."

"We got advanced life support ambulances so that patients are not deprived of oxygen in the journey. The two ICU patients who needed it on an emergency were given spare oxygen cylinders. The others were manageable as their oxygen saturation was 80 or 90," he added.

The control room works 24/7. "We mobilised 20 ambulances from CV Raman Nagar constituency. 16 of them had oxygen. They came in ten minutes. But we had to mobilise 108 ambulances for advance life support for ICU patients. They came in 20 minutes," said Dr Bhaskar Rajkumar.

Dr HDR Radhakrishna, medical superintendent, CV Raman General Hospital, however, said the short circuit in the control panel happened at around 8:05 pm and by 12 am patients were shifted to other hospitals.

"By 12.30 am or 12.45 am, the patients reached other hospitals. We had more than 100 Jumbo oxygen cylinders with 7,000 litres compressed oxygen that are used for high flow oxygen but patients were provided small oxygen cylinders with 2,000 litres to 3,000 litres oxygen after the short circuit. There are more than 20 of these that are used in Emergency and Operation Theatres," he added. Between 12 am and 3 am the electric line was repaired and oxygen supply was restored in the hospital, Dr Radhakrishnan said.