48-year-old Covid-19 patient passes away after failing to procure a hospital bed for three days

A 48-year-old resident of DJ Halli, who tested Covid-19 positive passed away in Bengaluru on Tuesday night after failing to secure a bed in any of the city's hospitals for three days.

His inconsolable wife told DH, "What is the point of having such a big government? I sobbed and begged the hospital administrations to admit my husband. I have three daughters and a son, aged between six years and seven, to take care of on my own now. I have been hunting for a hospital bed for three days. They did not admit him anywhere. He did not even get an ambulance with oxygen. That is why he died. I went to all big hospitals like Manipal. What is the government doing? Where are the facilities?"

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A resident of Amar Layout in DJ Halli, she said the last hospital she went to, Akash Hospital, where her husband passed away, has currently kept his body and that the BBMP will take it today. "I went there because I was told there is a bed available there. But even there they did not admit him," she said.

Dr Kailash N, Medical Superintendent, Akash Institute of Medical Sciences, Devanahalli, said there was no delay on their part and that the BBMP has taken the patient's body. He told DH, "He was a brought dead patient. Critical patients need ventilators which are currently full in our hospital. We had explained all this to the family. We have 600 Covid beds, 25 ICU beds and 20 ventilators which are all full. We currently have 390 Covid patients."

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She said Regal Kidney and Multispeciality Hospital in Thanisandra Main Road, Chokkanahalli, informed her that it had a bed. But after reaching the hospital, the authorities allegedly said that they have a dialysis patient to tend to and that she has to wait till 7 pm on Tuesday. "I told the doctor there that my husband needs oxygen. He rudely said even if he dies he can't help it and that we have to wait till 7 pm. They had beds but they didn't take him in," she alleged

Asked if the hospital authorities checked how critical he was, she said, "They did not even want to touch my husband." She also contacted Tushar Girinath, the nodal officer appointed by the state to streamline bed allocation. She said he asked her to take him to Vydehi Hospital which is in Whitefield.

"I asked him to at least provide an ambulance with oxygen. By the time it arrived, my husband passed away. I informed the authorities that there is no oxygen when we were on the way itself. I begged Regal Hospital to give a little oxygen to him. They also did not give him an ambulance though they had ambulances," she alleged.

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Dr Suri Raju, Urologist and Head of Regal Hospital, said, "When the patient came here, his oxygen saturation level was 35%. Patients who are sinking need to be intubated and put on a ventilator urgently. Giving oxygen alone is not sufficient. Had we known the criticality of the patient, we wouldn't have told the patient that we have a bed with oxygen. After the patient came here, we realised that he needs ICU treatment. We have no intensivists or specialists. We have two ICU beds for non-Covid patients. Both were full yesterday. Also, we are a small hospital with 30 beds and one ambulance. We have still allocated ten beds for Covid-19. The only reason we are on that list of Dedicated Covid Health Centres (DCHC) is because we are empanelled with Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST). The government should check with hospitals if they have the resources to treat patients before putting them on the list."

She said she was ready to pay any amount of money for the treatment of her husband but nobody yielded to her requests. "I did everything that Dr Ibrahim from Frazer Town guided me to do. He is the one who gave me a prescription to start oxygen therapy in the beginning. Later, one Dr Stephen said my husband will recover if he gets oxygen. How much oxygen do I procure and from where in a day? I got one cylinder from Frazer Town, and three cylinders from Basavanagudi," she said.

On Tuesday evening, when DH contacted her, she had said, "I am unable to get a bed for him anywhere. I called 108 ambulance who said go wherever you want, when I dial 1912, it says check the number and dial again."

She is one among the 200 caregivers of Covid-19 suspects and patients who have procured one or more oxygen cylinders from voluntary groups for their family members because they are unable to procure a bed in any of the city's hospitals. Despite the state's assurances that all is well, even to the central team that visited the city on Tuesday, this is how much the crisis has exacerbated in the state capital.