BEIJING – The authorities in Lanzhou admitted on Thursday that their pandemic measures had delayed the emergency rescue of a three-year-old boy, who later died of gas poisoning.

The death exposed the system’s “weak emergency responses, rigid workflow and poor rescue mechanisms”, the authorities in the provincial capital of Gansu in north-western China said on the microblogging platform Weibo.

“We sincerely accept the public’s criticism, and will deeply learn the painful lessons of this mishap,” they added. “We will rectify our workflow, and always place the importance of people and lives first.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Mr Tuo Shilei, 32, had arrived home to find his wife and son unconscious while a liquefied natural gas stove was on. He called the local emergency centre three times, before getting through on the fourth try.

The operator told him his wife and son must first see a doctor online before they can be taken to a hospital because their home was in a high-risk area for Covid-19.

A consultation had initially been arranged 10 minutes after the call, but the doctor did not manage to speak to Mr Tuo until some 40 minutes later.

Mr Tuo’s phone records showed that he called the emergency care centre and the police nine times within an hour of finding his unconscious wife and son.

After speaking to the doctor, who arranged for an ambulance, Mr Tuo rushed out of his house but was barred from leaving the compound by Covid-19 control staff.

Neighbours who witnessed Mr Tuo’s desperation told local media they overheard him crying that his son was not breathing and that he had to take the boy to hospital.

The authorities told Mr Tuo to put on a mask and checked both him and his son for Covid-19.

The father and son waited for the ambulance for 40 minutes before Mr Tuo decided to carry his son over a metal barrier – with the help of neighbours – and rushed to the street to hail a cab.

Ten minutes later, he reached the hospital where medical staff tried to resuscitate his son, to no avail.

The boy was pronounced dead about three hours after Mr Tuo found him.

The ambulance, which eventually arrived, took Mr Tuo’s wife to the hospital. She survived.

Mr Tuo, who allegedly recounted the mishap on Weibo, said the local authorities had offered him 100,000 yuan (S$19,500) in exchange for his silence.

“I don’t want your money. I want answers and accountability for my son’s death,” he wrote in a screenshot that The Straits Times has seen.

The post can no longer be found on his Weibo account, and he did not reply to ST’s queries.

Outraged netizens noted a similar incident that was reported on Nov 1 by the police in northern China’s Hebei province. It involved another father, who threatened pandemic workers with a knife before driving through a barricade to take milk powder to his quarantined infant son.

The baby, who was with his mother, had allegedly not been given milk powder for two days, despite calls to the local authorities for help, according to local media reports.

The father, who was arrested by the police for his brash act, was later released and fined 100 yuan. The authorities subsequently sent two cans of milk powder to the boy’s mother.

A Weibo user posted: “It really does not pay to be obedient in China. You or your loved ones might even die if you don’t take matters into your own hands.”

In January, a woman had a miscarriage after she was barred from entering a hospital for two hours because her Covid-19 results had expired.

And in March, a four-year-old girl with acute laryngitis and two other patients with asthma and kidney failure died because they did not receive medical attention in time due to Covid-19 prevention measures.

The National Health Commission said in July that the pandemic measures are not a reason for hospitals to delay treating urgent and critically ill patients.