Medical mismanagement and apathy has robbed many people of their loved ones during the lockdown. Scores of men, women and children have lost their lives because hospitals either remain closed or refuse to admit patients who are not suffering from Covid-19 either due to lack of infrastructure, lack of doctors, lack of funds or by just not understanding the urgency of the situation while asking severely ill patients to get a medical certificate proving that they don’t suffer from the coronavirus infection.
Yet another example of this was witnessed in Jaladhar when a pregnant woman and her child died after being made to do the rounds of seven hospitals in four days and not getting the required medical attention, The Tribune reported.
Vicky and his wife Seema (19), both migrants who used to live in Jalandhar were struggling just when Covid-19 exacerbated their challenges. Seema, who was due to deliver her child on June 5, complained of unease and pain around mid-May. Vicky said she was in normal condition on May 5 when her last ultrasound was done. However, the couple didn’t pay much attention to it as it wasn’t consistent and related it to uneasiness brought upon by the last month of pregnancy.
However, Seema’s pain turned unbearable on May 28 and she was rushed to a hospital in Adampur, but was denied admission. Then, she went to the Civil Hospital in Jalandhar where the doctors diagnosed her with a serious medical condition. They then referred her to the Amritsar Medical College after diagnosing her with a serious complication. However, before they could do that, they had asked that Seema’s Covid-19 test be done and precious time was lost before they got the results, which further worsened the condition of the unborn child.
At the Amritsar Medical College, Seema was treated for two days, but the doctors didn’t promise much. Vicky tried to take her to private hospitals but couldn’t get entry there due to lack of funds. Allegedly due to unsatisfactory care, Vicky got Seema back to the Jalandhar Civil Hospital where she breathed her last on May 31.
Civil Surgeon Dr Gurinder Kaur Chawla told The Tribune, “Seema required tertiary care in Amritsar, but the couple didn’t like it there and returned to us in a further complicated condition. Hers was a case of intra-uterine death. The baby died in the womb.”
However, this isn’t the only incident of such apathy.
In Thane’s Mumbra, a 28-year-old woman, Asma Mehendi who was six months pregnant died after several hospitals refused to admit her, the Mumbai Mirror reported. According to the police, Mehendi died in an auto-rickshaw on May 26 after two hospitals – Bilal Hospital and Prime Criticare Hospitals refused to admit her. Her husband, Akbar, however said that he took her to five hospitals, all of which refused admission. He told the Mumbai Mirror, “We went to five hospitals, but every hospital had a reason or the other to refuse admission. For hours, we ran from one hospital to another, and Asma breathed her last in an auto outside Kalsekar Hospital in Mumbra.”
A report by Hindustan Times stated that Mehendi’s X-ray showed a chest infection after which she was taken to Kalwa Hospital. By law, Kalwa Hospital cannot refuse emergency patients even then, she was denied admission there. Her husband then put her in an auto and took her to Kalsekar Hospital but they refused admission too, citing it was a Covid-19 designated hospital. However after much pleading they admitted her, but by then her health had deteriorated. RT Kendre, Thane Municipal Corporation Health Officer told HT that Kalsekar Hospital couldn’t admit suspect or negative Covid-19 patients. However, when Mehendi was finally given permission to be admitted, Dr. Afreen Saudagar said that she had no respiratory rate and though they put her on the ventilator, she had passed away.
According to reports, the Mumbra Police in Thane have registered an FIR against three private hospitals and sent show-cause notices to 78 private hospitals in Mumbra, Kausa, Kalwa and Diva.
As hospitals run out of beds and insist on following protocol, will the suspect / non-Covid 19 patients continue to lose lives in the bargain?
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