Chandrakona 1 (Bengal): When this reporter visited her on July 23, Shampa Singh of the Chandrakona 1 block of Paschim Medinipur in West Bengal had initially been unable to speak.Her anguish had been difficult to put into words. When she eventually did, here is what she said,”I watched my daughter die before my eyes, gasping for breath, deprived of oxygen and left without proper treatment.”Shampa says she pleaded with the doctors who could not arrange for oxygen. After a wait of five hours, her son died, she said.These events unfolded on the morning of July 16 at Khirpai Rural Hospital in Chandrakona-1 Block. Just four days earlier, a strikingly similar incident had been reported at Daspur Rural Hospital in Chandrakona- 2 Block, where a father and his son allegedly lost their lives after oxygen could not be made available in time.The father, 59-year-old Sunil Pandit, and son lived nearly 30 kilometres from the Chandrakona 2 Block hospital, in Goyaldanga village.According to locals, Sunil was an agricultural labourer who had finally secured a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana after years of repeated applications and efforts. Three months ago, at a time when the toilet attached to the house had been partially constructed, the work had had to stop because allocated government funds had been exhausted and the sharp rise in sand prices made it impossible for the family to continue the construction.On July 12, Sunil resumed work on the unfinished toilet chamber. As a mason climbed into the chamber to begin the work, he seems to have come in the way of poisonous gases and collapsed inside, said a neighbour, Sankar Pandit.In a desperate attempt to save him, Sunil, his son Lakshman (32) and Lakshman’s father-in-law climbed into the toilet chamber one after another. Within minutes, all three also lost consciousness after inhaling toxic fumes.Neighbours climbed in and at considerable peril to their lives, managed to pull all four men out.“None of them was conscious when they were brought out. They were barely breathing,” recalled Sankar.Sankar and several other villagers alleged that the victims were first rushed to a nearby rural hospital, where oxygen was reportedly unavailable. They were then taken to Daspur Rural Hospital, but according to the family and eyewitnesses, life-saving oxygen could not be arranged there in time either.Neighbours say that Sunil and Lakshman may have been saved if they had been given oxygen.Also read: No ‘Actual’ Hike in Govt Health Budget Pushing Indians Towards ‘Catastrophic’ Health Expenses: Parl PanelThe second incidentJust four days after the tragedy at Daspur Hospital, at Khirpai Rural Hospital in Chandrakona-1 Block, an 18-month-old died. Her family alleges that the child did not receive treatment after oxygen failed to arrive.According to the family, the child, a resident of Chadannagar village under Ghantal police station, developed a high fever on the evening of July 15. As the night progressed, her condition deteriorated and she began struggling to breathe.“As my daughter’s breathing became increasingly difficult, I rushed her to the hospital at dawn, braving heavy rain and stormy weather,” said her father, Amit Singh.Amit alleged that although the child was admitted, she never received any medical treatment. “The hospital staff said oxygen would be arranged, but it never came. From the moment she was admitted, I did not see any doctor attend to her,” he said.Shampa, her mother, alleged that no one informed the family that there was no doctor on duty.“At around 10 am, she died inside the hospital,” said Shampa.Sampa Singh, the grief- stricken mother of the one and half year old girl who allegedly died due to a lack of oxygen at Khirpai Hospital, continues to mourn her daughter’s tragic death.The death of the toddler on July 16 sparked outrage inside the Khirpai Rural Hospital. Grieving family members, joined by relatives of other patients, staged a protest within the hospital premises, accusing the administration of gross negligence. Police from Khirpai outpost rushed to the hospital to bring the situation under control.Several locals claimed that the anger was directed not only at the hospital but at what they described as the failures of the existing public healthcare system.Locals alleged that doctors are often available only one or two days a week, leaving pharmacists and nurses to shoulder the responsibility of treating patients for the rest of the time.“Ordinary people do not know what is happening inside these hospitals. They come here hoping for treatment, but when they do not receive it, they are forced to borrow money or sell their belongings to seek care at a private hospital,” said Jagadish De, a resident of the Khirpai Hospital area.A health worker at Khirpai Rural Hospital, requesting anonymity, said that repeated requests had been made to the district health authorities to appoint doctors and medical staff. “What are we supposed to do?” the staff member asked. “There is not always enough oxygen available. We cannot tell a critically ill patient to wait. When something goes wrong, it is we who face the anger and anguish for the patients families,” he said.However, a senior official of the district health department offered a different account. The official said that oxygen supplies are regularly dispatched from the office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) to rural and block hospitals. “It is surprising that a patient allegedly did not receive oxygen. That is exactly what needs to be investigated,” the official, who also requested anonymity, said.But CMOH of Paschim Medinipur Dr Soumosankar Sarengi denied that the deaths had occurred due to a shortage of oxygen. Speaking to The Wire, he said, “Our team visited both hospitals. No patient died because of a lack of oxygen.”When asked what had caused the deaths, Sarengi said that the matter was still under investigation.The CMOH also declined to comment on the reported shortage of doctors and healthcare personnel in the district’s rural hospitals.