Ambulance driver replaces oxygen cylinder, Patient chokes to death in Thiruvalla

Thiruvalla: A 67-year-old patient, who was being shifted to another hospital, died for want of oxygen in an ambulance on Monday. The deceased has been identified as Venpala native Rajan. The ambulance driver has been blamed for the unfortunate death as the bereaved claimed he replaced a full oxygen cylinder with a near-empty one.

Rajan was rushed to the taluk hospital at Thiruvalla after developing breathing difficulties in the wee hours of Monday. Here, after a checkup, the doctors referred Rajan to Alappuzha Medical College Hospital for advanced treatment. Though the hospital staff had supplied an oxygen cylinder for the 45-minutes-long journey, Rajan’s family allege that it was replaced with another. According to them, the ambulance driver, with assistance from an unnamed person, replaced the oxygen cylinder supplied by the hospital with one that they were carrying. This, they say, lasted for only 3 kilometres of the 30-km-long journey to Vanadanam where the Alappuzha Medical College Hospital is located.

Rajan told his Girish that he was not getting any oxygen. Despite relaying this to the driver, the family allege that the driver took no heed. ‘He only suggested that we remove the mask, let more air in’, Girish said. Midway into the journey, when it seemed that Rajan’s condition was getting worse, Girish shouted at the driver to stop at any nearby hospital, however, he ignored their pleas. The ambulance had in fact crossed two hospitals on the way but stopped at neither. When they finally reached Alappuzha Medical College, the doctors pronounced Rajan dead.

The doctors also confirmed that my father had died for want of oxygen. It’s even in the report’, Girish said. ‘When the driver learned that my father [Rajan] had died, he fled the scene. He didn’t wait around to get the money. He simply disappeared’, he alleged. What further complicates the matter is that Rajan and his family had to make the 50-minutes-long journey without any hospital staff accompanying them. ‘Had there been anyone with us, things would have been different. It was just the driver alone, and he paid our concerns no heed’, Girish said. The incident comes just days after Health Minister Veena George conducted a lightning raid at the Thiruvalla taluk hospital over allegations that there were serious lapses in the management.