16 kids die at Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College in last 24 hours

Lucknow: Sixteen children, including ten infants, died at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur during the last 24 hours, authorities said on Monday.

Of the children who died, ten were admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) while six were in the paediatric ICU.

According to reports, 20 patients -- including six from Deoria, two from Kushinagar, four each from Gorakhpur and Maharajganj, and one patient each from Basti and Balrampur -- afflicted with encephalitis have been admitted to the hospital in the last 24 hours.

As many as three dozen patients, mostly affected by encephalitis, were being treated at BRD Medical College. Five patients from Bihar were also being treated there, doctors said. 

Officials said that 1,470 patients have been admitted to the BRD Medical College since January this year, adding that a total of 310 have died.

The BRD Medical College hit the headlines earlier in August when 63 children, including infants, died within a span of one week due to disruption of oxygen supply by the vendor. 

The FIR was lodged against nine people, including the owner of the oxygen supplying company and the principal of BRD Medical College.

Doctors said the latest deaths did not occur due to lack of oxygen, treatment or anything else but the fact that they were brought to the hospital in a very critical condition.