In an awful incident, two kids lost their lives in government-run Maharaja Yashwantrao Hospital in Indore after being wrongly administered anaesthesia instead of oxygen. While five-year-old Ayush died on May 27, the following day an infant Rajveer also breathed his last.

Initially, the hospital failed to determine the cause but a probe revealed that the pipeline that was supposed to supply oxygen to patients was carrying nitrous oxide, an anesthetic agent.

“Ayush died during Hernia surgery on May 27, while 18-month-old Rajveer was being operated for a deformity on May 28, in the hospital’s recently inaugurated operation theatre,” Dr. Shukla said. The operation theatre, which was inaugurated on May 24, has been sealed, he said.

Sumit Shukla said that there are two separate colour-coded pipes in the operation theatre, one for oxygen and the other for nitrous oxide. It seemed that the pipe meant to supply oxygen yielded the wrong gas, he said.

After all this, the hospital authorities are unwilling to take the blame. Instead, the authorities claimed that the technician who laid the pipes was responsible for the unfortunate incident. A technician from a private company, Rajendra Choudhary, who was responsible for fitting the gas supply pipeline, has been booked for manslaughter.

Rajendra Choudhary says that he has been made a scapegoat. “My job was only to install the pipes. Using those pipes to supply gas was the job of the hospital,” he said.

Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) has taken cognisance of the incident and has asked dean, MGM Medical College, Indore to submit a report on the incident in 10 days.