9 dead in Russia Covid hospital after oxygen pipe rupture

Moscow - Official says the oxygen supply was interrupted when 71 patients were in intensive care

Nine coronavirus patients died on Monday in Russia’s republic of North Ossetia after an oxygen pipe ruptured in a hospital in the capital Vladikavkaz, authorities said.

“Nine patients with coronavirus died due to the lack of oxygen at the Republic Clinical Hospital of Vladikavkaz,” Russian news agencies cited the ministry as saying.

They also cited the republic’s acting head Sergei Minyaylo as saying that “there was a rupture of the oxygen pipe” and “the oxygen supply was interrupted”.

The health ministry said that 71 patients were in intensive care at the time of the accident, including 13 supported by “mechanical ventilation”.

All nine patients that died were on ventilators, it said.

Minyaylo said that the lungs of the nine patients had already suffered “90 per cent damage” before the pipeline ruptured and said it was too early to blame their deaths on the accident.

He said that the problem was “promptly detected and eliminated within 30 to 40 minutes” and the rest of the patients were transferred to “oxygen cylinders and backup oxygen sources”.

He added that the North Ossetia republic in Russia’s North Caucasus region has no problem supplying its hospitals with oxygen.