India COVID crisis: ‘Lack of oxygen killed him, not the virus’

Death of a doctor due to oxygen shortage at prominent Delhi hospital underscores India’s unfolding coronavirus crisis.

New Delhi, India – On Saturday afternoon, 12 coronavirus patients died at New Delhi’s Batra Hospital after it ran out of medical oxygen. Among the dead was Dr RK Himthani, head of the gastroenterology unit at the same hospital. The private hospital in southern Delhi was among several in the Indian capital and across India to sound an alarm over a crippling oxygen shortage as they struggle to cope with patients pouring in, needing ventilators and ICU beds. For the past week, Batra Hospital’s administration said they had been facing the same shortage, but oxygen arrived minutes before running out. On Saturday they ran out of luck.