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.
