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The night the oxygen ran out: Inside one tragic night in Delhi

By Jeffrey Gettleman, Emily Schmall, Suhasini Raj and Hari Kumar
New York Times·
11 mins to read

A cascading series of failures, from the central government on down, left hospitals across India without medical oxygen, killing hundreds. One tragic night in Delhi shows how it happened.

At 9:45pm, alarms blared across the intensive care unit of Jaipur Golden Hospital. Over two dozen patients on ventilators couldn't breathe. Some flailed their arms and legs. Others cried for help, choking sounds coming from their throats as if they were being strangled.

Mechanics sprinted to the maintenance room to see

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