A chilling Whatsapp chat between a journalist and his brother before the former died due to coronavirus, is prompting serious questions on the lack of facilities and medical personnel at a government Covid hospital in Telangana.
The 33-year-old journalist and his brother had been admitted at the Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad, after both of them were diagnosed with Covid-19 on June 3. The chat reveals how the deceased, despite complaining of severe breathing issues, was not provided any oxygen support and how there were no doctors present inside the hospital's ICU.
Doctors had attended to the deceased after 12 hours despite him repeatedly complaining of breathing difficulty, alleged his brother, adding that by the time his kin was taken to the ICU, his condition had worsened.
“My brother (deceased) developed breathing issues late in the night on the day we were admitted. I went out of the ward to look for doctors but there were none around. After multiple calls by fellow journalists to State Health Minister’s team and pressure from higher-ups on the Hospital's Superintendent, the doctor came the next day,” he said.
However, by the time the doctors came, the journalist's condition had aggravated as he developed acute breathing issues, his brother said.
"He was taken to ICU unit after almost 15 hours. We were told that there were no beds available in ICU," said the scribe's brother.
"I threatened to create a ruckus and walk out of the isolation ward if my brother wasn't given proper treatment, and only then did they agree to move him to the ICU. By then, his breathing condition had worsened," he said.
But the torment did not end there. Once inside the ICU, the journalist texted his brother saying that he had not received any oxygen support, and highlighted the absence of any doctor. He died on June 7 amid treatment.
The Telangana Government has, however, refuted the claims, stating that all patients at the Gandhi Hospital were being given proper treatment.
The hospital statement says that he died of a cardiac arrest. He could not be revived despite attempts to resuscitate him, it said.
"The deceased was already suffering from Myasthenia Gravis, which causes weakening of muscles, including respiratory ones. He had urderwent surgery due to this, as well and was on steroids because of that. With these comorbidities, he became Covid-19 positive and had bilateral pneumonia with type-1 respiratory failure and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). We tried our best but he couldn’t be revived,” said Superintendent Raja Rao.
The State government in a previous press release had said that the Gandhi Hospital is equipped with enough facilities to treat 2,150 patients and had 1,000 beds with oxygen supply facility.
However, as of now, there are only 247 Covid-19 at the hospital.
While the government has said that there are "fake news" being spread against the hospital to malign the image of the state's healthcare system, this is not the first time such an incident has been reported.
In a previous case, the Telangana High Court had asked the state government if a Covid-19 patient was ‘dead or alive’ after his wife filed a petition alleging that her husband was missing.
She said that she had received no official communication about him and on the contrary been told contradictory versions of his whereabouts.
Videos alleged to be from the Gandhi Hospital's isolation ward have been circulating on social media. Unhygienic maintenance of the ward with beds placed too close to each can be seen in the videos.
The state is being widely criticised on its low coronavirus testing compared to other states. As of May 17, Telangana had only tested 22842 samples, one of the lowest figures in the country.
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