Chennai: Eighteen people died in MIOT Hospital at Manapakkam, Chennai, and the bodies of 14 were brought to the Royapettah Government Hospital in the city on Friday for post-mortem.
The bodies of the remaining four were sent home directly from MIOT Hospital, said a top Health Department official.
The Resident Medical Officer of the government hospital confirmed that the 14 bodies had come from MIOT Hospital.
Initial reports said the patients were all critical and on life support at MIOT hospital. Relatives of the patients claimed that the critical care systems at the hospital failed owing to lack of power caused by heavy flooding of the premises over the last few days.
At MIOT Hospital, grief-stricken families of the deceased wept and many others attempted to find out where their loved ones were, The Hindu reported.
Managing director of the hospital Prithvi Mohandoss said flooding was caused by the breaching of the nearby Adyar river. Its waters pounded through a wall and inundated the premises. “This occurred on Tuesday night. We immediately shifted all 30 patients to the main Cancer block. By Wednesday morning, we had no power, the generator sets were completely damaged in the rain and nothing was working — ventilators, monitors or equipment. We tried our best with manual support but lost 14 patients,” he said.
There were 700 patients in the hospital at the time of the crisis. Rescue operations began on Thursday and by Friday afternoon, 350 were shifted to other hospitals, Dr. Mohandoss said.
“The main block, which has seven floors, was built four times higher than the 100-year floodline. We were not expecting the river to breach. Our phone lines were down and we were completely marooned. We made every attempt to contact rescue services, but in vain,” he said.
“Oxygen cylinders, boats supplied”
Health Department officals said they received requests from MIOT Hospital for oxygen cylinders and boats, all of which were supplied. Last afternoon, some patients were shifted to nearby hospitals. The 14 patients died over at least two days, December 2 and 3, they added. Four of the bodies were sent home directly, while the other 14 were sent to Government Royapettah Hospital for post mortem examination.
Director of Medical Education S. Geethalakshmi told reporters that “they had received 14 bodies from MIOT Hospital and the hospital had told the authorities that most of the patients were in a critical condition and died of natural causes.”
Nobody from the MIOT Hospital was present at the Royapettah hospital, where the bodies were kept. When asked whether they were in possession of any case records, Dr. Geethalakshmi said they are trying to get access to them to investigate the true cause of the deaths.
There are a total of 49 bodies at the Royapettah hospital, including flood victims that have come in over the past couple of days, according to sources. Hospital administrators said they had created a special help desk to help members of the public identify their kin.