Oxygen at station may have saved lives: Docs

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.

- Ridhima Gupta

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 18 patients 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.