Oxygen at station may have saved lives: Docs

Some victims of the New Delhi stampede could have survived with timely oxygen support, but many alleged it was not provided at the station or in ambulances.

The lives of some of the 18 people who perished in a stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station on Saturday might have been saved if they were administered oxygen on time, two doctors who attended to the patients said on Monday, even as family members of several of the victims alleged that oxygen was not administered at the station or in the ambulance even when asked.

Passengers at New Delhi Railway Station after new crowd control measures were implemented on Tuesday. (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO)

The autopsies of 15 of the 18 people who died in the stampede identified “traumatic asphyxia” as the cause of death – a severe suffocation that doctors say may be treatable if oxygen therapy is administered quickly, indicating that some of the victims could have been saved by timely help.

HT spoke to the families of all 18patients on Monday. Six of them said they were not given oxygen at the station. Families of four others said there was no oxygen support inside the government-run CATS ambulances. One other family said they did not get an ambulance and went to a hospital on their own, and another said their relative was taken in a police van.

An official in the health department of the Delhi government, asking not to be named, denied the allegations.

The deaths occurred when a rush of pilgrims turned fatal at the station on Saturday night. Thousands had converged on platforms 14 and 15, hoping to board trains to the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj, when confusion over a special train announcement triggered a deadly crush. At least 12 more were injured, with one still hospitalised.

“As soon as the patients reached the hospital, they were provided oxygen support right from the gate. However, due to the lack of initial aid, many did not survive,” said a senior doctor at the Lok Nayak Hospital, asking not to be named.

Autopsies of 10 victims were carried out at Lok Nayak, five at Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital and three at Lady Hardinge Medical College. The five at RML too died of traumatic asphyxia, while HT could not determine the cause of death for the remaining three.

A second doctor at Lok Nayak, who asked not to be named, concurred that some of the lives could have been saved if patients were given primary first aid oxygen.

A Railways spokesperson said the station was equipped with oxygen cylinders but did not have personnel to administer them. “There were no doctors to administer oxygen support to the public at the time,” this person said.

The health department official denied that the victims were not provided with oxygen assistance or that there were not enough ambulances.

Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) officials did not respond to requests for a comment.

Several of the eyewitnesses at the station on Saturday said emergency services arrived after over half an hour, a claim corroborated by some first responders, who reported being held up in jams outside the station, HT reported on Monday.

Tuntun Bhagat, relative of Manoj Kushwah, who was among the stampede victims, said there was no oxygen provided in the ambulance. “I was crying for help at the station after Manoj was left unconscious. I begged a police officer at the station to give him some oxygen but he said he could not do anything. I managed to get an ambulance for Manoj but the people in it too did not provide oxygen and eventually he was pronounced dead at Lok Nayak,” Bhagat said.

The son-in-law of Poonam Devi, a woman from Bihar who was killed in the stampede, said there was “no help from Railway staff for nearly 40 minutes.”. “Even the ambulance that took my mother-in-law to Lok Nayak Hospital did not provide her any oxygen,” said Pappu, who goes by a single name.

A third person, Upendra, who also goes by a single name, narrated a similar experience in the case of his 37-year-old wife Pinki, who died at the station. “There was no oxygen assistance at the station, and it took almost an hour before Pinki and others could get an ambulance which was almost of no use,” he said.

“What is the purpose of ambulances if they provide no oxygen support? Are they just for transporting the dead?” he asked.

The need and extent of providing medical facilities, such as oxygen support at railway stations and trains has been noted by the Supreme Court in 2017. In compliance of the orders, a committee of experts was constituted at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, which recommended provisioning medical support at stations.

The central government in February 2023 issued instructions to provide a medical box containing life-saving medicines and oxygen cylinders at all railway stations and passenger-carrying trains.

(With inputs from Neha LM Tripathi and Alok KN Mishra)