The government has ordered a probe into the ICU deaths (Representational)

Three patients who were admitted at VIMS or Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences government hospital in Ballari district of Karnataka died allegedly after oxygen was cut off due to power outage.

Two patients identified as 35-year-old Maula Hussain, suffering from kidney ailment, was admitted on September 11 and 30-year-old Chettamma, admitted on September 13 after being bitten by a snake, died on Wednesday. 18-year-old Manoj, who was bitten by a scorpion and admitted on September 13, died on Thursday.

Manoj's brother Naresh told reporters that on the very day when his little brother was admitted, power outages were reported in the hospital.

"The hospital experienced power outage for nearly two hours. My brother was then shifted to another ward. On Wednesday, the hospital had no power between 6 am and 11.30 am. Around this time, the deaths have taken place. However, we were not informed about our brother's death on the same day. We were informed that they have shifted my brother to the ICU ward where we were not allowed inside," Naresh said.

NDTV spoke to some contract employees at the hospital. Without asking to be identified, they said the power outage was due to a transformer blast on the hospital premises and the backup generator had failed. They said the patients were immediately shifted to the ICU.

Though the government has ordered an inquiry into this, the hospital authorities refuted the allegations that the patients died due to lack of oxygen.

"It was coincidence that Chettamma and Hussain died when there was power cut. The health conditions of both patients deteriorated. They died when there was electricity. We have ordered an inquiry," said VIMS director T Gangadhara Gouda.

Demanding strict action against the staff of the hospital, leader of the opposition Siddaramaih brought this up in the assembly and questioned the government on what has been done to ensure that such incidents don't occur.

Social Welfare and Transport Minister B Sriramulu refuted the charges of deaths due to power outage.

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"Power cuts were frequent and they did have a generator which could provide 1.5 hours of backup and a UPS which could provide another 1.5 hours of backup. There is no negligence by the hospital authorities," he said.

A committee headed by Dr Smitha, professor of Begaluru Medical College and Research Institute, has been formed to look into the deaths that took place on Wednesday.

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