A 50-year-old COVID-19 patient lay on a stretcher outside the gate of Lok Nayak Hospital for hours waiting for a bed until he stopped moving and was declared dead, the family alleged on Thursday. The hospital administration has denied all the allegations.
Imtiaz Ashraf Ali waited for treatment on a stretcher in sweltering heat for over three hours on Wednesday afternoon, his brother Azam said, as the family hustled to get him a bed inside, The Indian Express reported. “Ali’s condition continued to deteriorate and he started gasping for breath. At 3.30 pm, he stopped moving,” Azam said. He was then declared dead by doctors and his body was sent to the mortuary.
The deceased, who had tested positive for COVID-19, was referred to Lok Nayak from Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital.
“We left DDU hospital around 12.30-1 pm. An ambulance dropped Ali outside the hospital gate, on the ground. When we got there we were shocked. My brother couldn’t breathe and was shivering. I was scared. I spoke to the receptionist and some doctors, but they told me they have no beds and we’ll have to wait. They eventually placed him on a stretcher out in the open, and a doctor came at one point to check up on him and tell us that a bed will be made available soon,” the report quoted Azam as saying.
As the family anxiously waited, Ali “closed his eyes” and was declared dead, Azam said. His body was handed over to the family on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, refuting the family’s allegations, Dr Ritu Saxena, DMS, Lok Nayak Hospital, claimed that the patient died at 4pm inside the hospital “during treatment”.
Ali is survived by his wife and two children.
A resident of Subhash Nagar, Ali rejoined work after his employer called him back at a plastic factory. Days later, he complained of fever and was given medicines for viral at a clinic. However, when his condition deteriorated, they took him to DDU Hospital where he tested positive for the coronavirus.
“He was admitted at DDU and had to share the oxygen cylinder with a patient lying nearby,” Azam alleged.
The doctors at the DDU hospital denied the allegation and claimed that they have "plenty of oxygen cylinders". "We have a gas pipeline and even a liquid oxygen plant. The patient was shifted when his COVID-19 report came back positive. As DDU is a non-Covid hospital, he had to be shifted to Lok Nayak,” a senior doctor at the hospital tolf The Indian Express.
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