Eight patients die when central Turkey hospital runs out of oxygen

A deputy from the Good Party (İYİ) said that eight COVID-19 patients who were intubated died when the hospital's central oxygen supply ran out on July 19. The Konya Research and Training Hospital reportedly filed an erroneous report to make the oxygen supplier seem like the faulty party.

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Good Party (İYİ) deputy Fahrettin Yokuş claimed that the oxygen reserves in central Anatolian Konya's Research and Training Hospital ran out on July 19 around 1 a.m. and resulted in the deaths of eight COVID-19 patients who were intubated. 

The deputy said that chaos overtook the hospital when the oxygen reserves bottomed out, and demanded additional oxygen from the supplier.

"But the supplier had to transport the gas tanker from Ankara, so this wasn't a solution," Yokuş said. 

The deputy claimed that hospital administrators compiled official reports that said the vehicle used by the supplier to transport the gas had broken down en route in an attempt to cover up the error.

"It could have been any one of us, or family members who were there during the scandalous events of that night, and the most horrifying part is that this calamity wasn't reported."

Although the chief public prosecutor's office launched an investigation into the incident as soon as it was reported, the provincial health directorate failed to provide the necessary information. 

"How could a hospital possibly run out of oxygen? I encourage the Justice, Interior and Health Ministries to do their duties."

The deputy also handed a series of parliamentary questions to the Konya Provincial Health Directorate and the Health Ministry, inquiring whether the latter was informed about the incident, and whether they had launched an investigation. 

The hospital's central oxygen supply system experienced a mechanical dysfunction some 20 days before the incident, the deputy said, asking why the error hadn't been fixed.