8-Year-Old Boy Dies, Baby Critical After Being Given Wrong 'Oxygen'

Indore: An eight-year-old boy died after he was mistakenly given nitrous oxide, a widely used anaesthetic, to breathe in place of oxygen at a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Indore, police said.

Ayush, 8, died on Friday after he was administered nitrous oxide  through a mask; he died in the operation theatre of Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital.

Earlier on Saturday, 18-month-old Rajveer was administered the 'wrong' gas in the same operation theatre. He is in serious condition.

The death of Ayush led to the arrest of a contractor who installed the gas pipes in the modular paediatric operation theatre where the children were treated, said OS Bhadoria, chief of Sanyogitaganj police station in Indore.

The operation theatre has been sealed and a first information report (FIR) has been registered, he said.

Sumit Shukla, a surgeon at the hospital, told reporters that there are two separate colour-coded pipes in the operation theatre, one for oxygen and the other for nitrous oxide which is widely used medically for its anaesthetic and analgesic effects.

It seemed that the pipe meant to supply oxygen yielded the wrong gas, he said.

Mr Shukla said the hospital was conducting its own inquiry as to how the horrible mix-up took place.

Some people, however, said the hospital has been guilty of gross medical negligence and is evading its responsibility in the matter.

Local legislator and Congress leader Jitu Patwari blamed the hospital authorities and sought action against them.

Contractor Rajendra Chadhary, who has been arrested, said 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.

Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital is the largest government hospital in Indore city.