21 families lost their loved ones overnight during an oxygen shortage at Delhi's Jaipur Golden Hospital in April 2021. As they fight for justice, the government has said there were "no deaths due to lack of oxygen" during the second wave of Covid-19.
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00:00His death was not natural. They murdered him. It's totally medical negligence.
00:11This case will be the ultimate test of the Indian judiciary.
00:23We are not going to accept all these reports or any sort of cover-up.
00:27You will have to admit it and you will have to answer it properly for that.
00:34There are so many missing patient reports. This case happened two months ago.
00:38How can I find them?
00:57On the intervening night between April 23 and 24, 2021, 21 patients at Jaipur Golden Hospital in New Delhi died of an oxygen shortage.
01:13Many of the families had been told their loved ones were well on the path to recovery, just hours before they were informed of their deaths.
01:21Brute journalist Neeti Upadhyay met with many of the families to try to understand what happened that night.
01:27Hello. Hi. Hello. Come in.
01:41We had a video call on the 22nd. It was her birthday.
01:44And she was very elated about it, that she wanted to celebrate it in a big manner, but then unfortunately she was in the hospital.
01:50I met her at 9.15 and gave her some custard. She made a video call to the kids.
01:57Let me try. Let me call her or something. I did. She did not answer. I even messaged her that everything is fine. She didn't reply.
02:05I got a call at 1.15 from my uncle. He said, come to the hospital. The doctor is calling. We need to talk.
02:12She would have realized that maybe she's not going to survive anymore. So, what was her last thoughts?
02:19I feel like there's nothing left in life. I just want to fulfill the breath that God has given me.
02:27I'm really sorry. I can't process it any further. Can we just change the question? Can we?
02:38Jaipur Golden expected to receive its oxygen supply at around 5pm.
02:42But it didn't show up until after midnight, leaving dozens of patients gasping for breath.
02:47Eric's mother, Delphine Messy, was pronounced dead at 2.15am.
02:51Hospital records show that just one minute later, Charanjit Gera also succumbed in the ICU.
02:57Gera's wife had died of COVID in another hospital just one hour earlier, leaving their children orphaned.
03:06The world had come to an end when I heard that my parents were not washing. I didn't know what to do. Everyone was crying.
03:12I didn't talk to anyone for at least 15 days. I was living alone.
03:16I didn't have any problems. Everything was fine. COVID was also gone.
03:19I was about to come home one or two days later. What happened all of a sudden?
03:23They gave me a reason. Cardiac failure and spectating failure.
03:28They gave me this reason.
03:30They didn't give me any other reason. There was a shortage of oxygen.
03:33There was nothing written anywhere.
03:35I spoke to the doctor. He said, no, no, we can't write like this.
03:40At 2.16pm, the doctor declared death.
03:43But we got a call at 1.10pm that he had died.
03:47We got a call at 1.10pm. They gave the wrong information.
03:58Gera was not the only one left with questions.
04:00After analysing documents released to Brood by the Hindustan Times,
04:04we confirmed that all 21 death reports stated the cause of death as respiratory failure.
04:09It came as a shock to the families when a Delhi government committee concluded
04:13that the Jaipur Golden deaths were not from oxygen shortage.
04:17Messi formed a WhatsApp group and eight of the 21 families affected
04:20agreed to move forward together with a petition in the Delhi High Court
04:24challenging the committee's findings.
04:30On one side, there was this grief and then loss, sadness.
04:34On the other, there was this anger and rage and everything.
04:37So, we were just sandwiched between the two.
04:40Then I thought maybe I should just reach out and then collect everyone
04:46and maybe we can do something about it.
04:58Supreme Court advocate Utsav Bain took up their case pro bono
05:01and urged the court to launch a fresh court-monitored CBI investigation.
05:07These lives could have been saved through high-flow oxygen cylinders
05:11had the hospital or the state informed these families before that
05:15the oxygen supply is delayed or it is not there.
05:18It is on record, the owner of the hospital says that these deaths are because of oxygen shortage.
05:24Is there anything left to prove or not to prove?
05:29Over the past few weeks, Brute made several attempts to reach the hospital for comment.
05:34The hospital had not responded by the time this piece was published.
05:37Neither had the Delhi government's representatives.
05:43The first responsibility of our man was that of the hospital
05:46when we were arranging all the expensive injections and plasma.
05:51So, we would have arranged the oxygen as well.
05:54Later, we would have seen whose fault it was.
05:56First, we would have saved the man's life.
06:04Ganpreet Singh from Haryana decided to travel more than three hours to Delhi
06:08to recover missing information from his father's file.
06:13They were saying that my father is recovering by 18 days.
06:17They were saying that my father is recovering by 80% on the last day
06:21and it's really shocking now.
06:23Reports are missing and I will definitely go to hospital tomorrow to collect it.
06:28Let's see what will happen.
06:47So, now we are going to my sister's place.
06:49I mean, I do that often these days.
06:52Because home, it used to be full of voices and music and all
06:57but it's so silent these days.
07:00So, it doesn't really feel like, don't really feel like staying there for long.
07:07When is your off this week?
07:09It's Saturday now.
07:11So, we are planning a meet on Saturday.
07:14So, we are planning a meet on Saturday.
07:17It's good to be in touch.
07:19Yes, exactly.
07:31There was one more, right?
07:34This is the one.
07:57Hello.
07:58Hi, Navya.
07:59Hello guys.
08:00Come, have a seat.
08:06I mean, we were just meeting because of two reasons.
08:09First, we have to decide for the compensation representation.
08:12I think most of us have written it.
08:14Yes.
08:15Right.
08:16We have not yet.
08:17It is very difficult also, how do you put value to human life?
08:20No, this is what I have written in my…
08:22Oh, you have made it?
08:23Because that's what I have written that how can I put a value to it, right?
08:27I can't put it in terms of money, in terms of any sort of, any means.
08:31Preparing it on your own, it's very overwhelming.
08:33How do you make it for your parents?
08:36What does it mean?
08:42While these families are bound together by their collective loss,
08:45in the end, everyone will have to try to find their own way forward.
08:56So for us, coming to this house regularly is a big task.
09:00Because, you know, you look at everything.
09:03For us, it's like…
09:34Right now, we have a lot of debt on us.
09:37Now, God knows how we will manage.
09:46What is closure?
09:47I mean, tomorrow the court will come and say that we couldn't provide,
09:52and that's why they died.
09:54Then what?
09:56Closure in the sense of the fact that if there is really a good outcome from this,
10:01if there is a law or a precedent that can be set,
10:04and it never happens again,
10:05I think that would be our greatest achievement and best form of closure ever.
10:11When it comes to our personal lives,
10:13or when it comes to what happened to our families,
10:17if someone says anything today,
10:20you can't reverse that.
10:22This is not reversible.
10:25Nobody is going to send us our mom back.
10:27No other families are going to get their people back.
10:31So, for us, it's done, right?
10:34It might make it easy.
10:39Okay.
10:40But that doesn't change the outcome.