City inquiry into industrial oxygen for sick kids

By Jane Chen | April 9, 2010, Friday |

Online Edition

TWO senior officials of a central China hospital are being investigated over the hospital's use of industrial oxygen to treat sick children.

Li Xilian, Party secretary of Hunan Province's Chenzhou Children's Hospital, and Jiang Zhi, the hospital's office dean, have been removed from their jobs, today's Global Times newspaper reported, citing Chen Yaguang, principal of the hospital's parent Chenzhou No.1 People's Hospital.

Chenzhou's disciplinary authority and prosecutors have joined the investigation, with the results expected next week, a Chenzhou government official told the newspaper.

No.1 People's Hospital has confirmed the children's hospital had used industrial oxygen for medical use.

At least one three-month-old baby was claimed to have developed a rare heart condition after using the oxygen, the report said.

Lian Yimin, the children's hospital's spokesperson, apologized for the panic it had caused among the public.

Oxygen for medical use must be pure at 99.5 percent, with foreign substances such as carbon dioxide extracted, according to officials with Xuhui Gas Co Ltd, Chenzhou's only licensed medical oxygen supplier.

Though purity of industrial gas can reach 99 percent, the foreign substances are not excluded and therefore banned from medical use.

These substances could damage the respiratory system and cause breath difficulties or lung infections, according to Wang Jishan, vice principal of Peking University People's Hospital.

Industrial oxygen sells at 7 yuan (US$1.03) per 40-liter bottle, compared to 30 yuan for medical oxygen, according to Xuhui officials.

Meanwhile, the chief of Chenzhou Industrial Gas Co Ltd, an unlicensed company for medical supplies that sold the industrial oxygen to the hospital, is Li's husband, according to sources close to the deal.

In the past 15 months, the hospital bought 10,000 40-Liter bottles of industrial oxygen making an illegal income of 300,000 yuan, according to an investigation by Chenzhou's drug authority,

Nation

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City inquiry into industrial oxygen for sick kids

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