‘Take me out or I will die’, said 1st deceased in video call message to family

Sarfaraz Ahmed | TNN | Apr 21, 2020, 04:12 IST

Nagpur: Around 8pm on April 5, Tahir (name changed) received a video call on his cell phone from an unknown number. The caller was a woman patient from IGGMCH isolation ward under observation on the bed next to the 68-year-old Satranjipura resident whose samples tested positive for Covid-19 a day after his death.
Even family members are prohibited from entering the isolation ward. The deceased’s son, his relative Tahir and another close relative used to be at the hospital but had returned home.
Thanks to the alert woman, the city’s first Covid-19 victim could have one brief interaction with his big family through a video call from her phone. The woman had called up on a number she got from the contact list of the 68-year-old’s phone after he complained of uneasiness.
“His eyes welled up on seeing all of us. We didn't know it was the last time his only son, three daughters, grandchildren, son-in-law and daughter-in-law were speaking to him,” said Tahir, who too tested positive for Covid-19 on April 19.
The woman, in her 30s, was at the ward for coming in contact with another coronavirus patient. She had been discharged and was about to leave the hospital when the 68-year-old man asked her to make a call.
“He was asking us to take him out from the hospital as he feared he would die there,” a relative said.
The woman later told them that soon after the call disconnected the man fell unconscious and never opened his eyes. In the chaos that followed, the relatives misplaced the woman’s number.
The deceased’s relatives, who too tested positive later, said the woman also asked them to come fast as the elderly man’s condition seemed to be deteriorating. “She told us no one was attending to him as he suffered from loose motions,” the relatives said.
Another relative said they would like to meet the woman and personally thank once the crisis is over.
“Most of us couldn’t even see his body before burial. All that is left now is those precious memories of around 10 minutes conversation,” said another relative.
“He was also happy to see his six-month-old granddaughter. He called out her name,” the relative said.
IGGMCH deputy medical superintendent Dr Sagar Pandey, who is nodal officer for Corona (Pt Care), said that how can relatives comment about patient care when they were not present. The hospital has alleged that relatives of the deceased had abandoned him and didn’t’ come forward even after his death.
“Patient was presented with complaints of loose motions but our vigilant doctors found him with respiratory distress and immediately shifted him to Covid suspects’ (isolation) ward. Our doctors are doing everything without caring for their own lives,” Dr Pandey said.
GMCH officials said that as per protocol they couldn’t give the woman's contact number. They said they too were trying to find out how she came in touch with the deceased.