New Delhi, Aug. 13: Oxygen is critical to treating life-threatening respiratory infections and encephalitis, but patient-specific probes may be needed to explain the spike in child deaths in Gorakhpur last week, doctors said today. Thirty children had died at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College on Thursday and Friday after a vendor stopped the oxygen supply on Wednesday evening because of unpaid bills. The state government insists that the hospital had quickly made alternative arrangements and that the children did not die of a lack of oxygen. "Children who are unconscious or have convulsions would need oxygen supply," Komal Kushwaha, former head of paediatrics at the Gorakhpur hospital, told The Telegraph . Critical-care specialists say that the primary goal in treating encephalitis patients is controlling the intracranial pressure and preventing seizures, and oxygen supply helps support this process.

Source: The Telegraph August 13, 2017 22:07 UTC