Nine patients who had been hospitalized in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz after contracting coronavirus died after a burst pipe cut off their oxygen supply, Russian news agencies reported on Monday. The accident comes as Russia battles a surge in COVID-19 cases, with the country logging the fourth-highest number of registered cases behind Brazil, India, and the United States.
The pipe had been supplying an intensive care ward in the republic of North Ossetia with the necessary oxygen. The part of the pipe that ruptured was underground.
"Medical staff has started to connect the patients who are on ventilators to oxygen tanks. Oxygen tanks have started to arrive," the acting head of North Ossetia Sergei Menyailo said.
However, Menyailo also claimed that the lungs of the nine patients had suffered "90% damage" before the rupture, meaning that their deaths could not be blamed on the malfunction. The problem was "promptly detected and eliminated within 30 to 40 minutes" he added. He went on to say that the region has no problem in supplying its hospitals with oxygen.
It is not the first time that coronavirus patients have died in accidents at Russian hospitals. At least five people died when a ventilator caught fire in Saint Petersburg last year. In June of this year, another three people died in a hospital fire in Ryazan, with a faulty ventilator again believed to have been the cause.
The pipe had been supplying an intensive care ward in the republic of North Ossetia with the necessary oxygen. The part of the pipe that ruptured was underground.
"Medical staff has started to connect the patients who are on ventilators to oxygen tanks. Oxygen tanks have started to arrive," the acting head of North Ossetia Sergei Menyailo said.
However, Menyailo also claimed that the lungs of the nine patients had suffered "90% damage" before the rupture, meaning that their deaths could not be blamed on the malfunction. The problem was "promptly detected and eliminated within 30 to 40 minutes" he added. He went on to say that the region has no problem in supplying its hospitals with oxygen.
It is not the first time that coronavirus patients have died in accidents at Russian hospitals. At least five people died when a ventilator caught fire in Saint Petersburg last year. In June of this year, another three people died in a hospital fire in Ryazan, with a faulty ventilator again believed to have been the cause.
