india

Updated: May 09, 2019 08:44 IST

Three patients on ventilator support died on Tuesday night at Tamil Nadu’s Madurai Government Hospital due to an unexpected power failure. After the incident, the kin of the deceased patients sat on a dharna in front of the hospital seeking action against the apathy of the concerned officials.

According to the relatives of the deceased, three people have died and two more who were on ventilator are fighting for life after a power cut that continued for nearly two and half hours in Madurai. The power cut happened after rains accompanied by thunderstorms lashed the temple town yesterday night.

Mallika (55), a resident of Melur, Madurai, Palaniyammal (60), a native of Ottanchatiram, Dindigul, and Raveendran (52) from Srivilliputtur, Virudhunagar are the patients who died after the ventilator failure, sources said.

“It was a 15 bedded emergency ward for accidental care of the Madurai Government Hospital near Anna bus stand in Madurai. When the thunderstorm happened, the power cut made the ventilators stop working,” Murugesan, a relative of Mallika said.

After hearing of the incident, nearly 100 relatives of the deceased started a protest in front of the hospital.

Madurai General Hospital Dean Vanitha Mani, Madurai city Assistant Police Commissioner Sasi Mohan, Medical Superintendent Raja, Resident Medical Officer Sri Latha are conducting negotiations with the relatives of the deceased to diffuse the situation.

Though the relatives of the victims are alleging ventilator failure as the reason for the deaths, Dean Vanitha Mani refuted the charge saying it was natural death due to the patients’ poor physical health.

“While it is true there was a power cut late in the evening, we had restored power immediately with the help of power back up. The deceased patients have not died due to ventilator failure. They were critical when their relatives brought them here from other private hospitals,” she said.

Earlier, at least 14 patients on ventilator support had died in a private hospital at Chennai due to a similar ventilator failure following power outages during the Chennai floods of 2015.