RAIPUR: Four newborns died at the government-run Ambedkar Hospital in Raipur on Sunday night, allegedly due to a disruption in the oxygen supply, in what could be a chilling rerun of the Gorakhpur tragedy. Police have arrested the oxygen plant operator, who was found drunk on duty.Subrat Sahoo, the Chhattisgarh health secretary, denied that the deaths were due to disruption of the oxygen supply but admitted that the level of oxygen in a few cylinders was "found to be low". Sahoo and the director of health services, R Prasanna, admitted that there was a drop in oxygen pressure but that this was "normalised immediately". They insisted that the deaths were due to illness.However, health officials told TOI that it was possible a drop in oxygen pressure in the children's special care unit may have caused the deaths. Preliminary investigations revealed that the patients on ventilator felt suffocated for about 20 minutes, triggering panic.

Source: Times of India August 21, 2017 22:30 UTC