63-year-old COVID-19 patient left all alone at home for four hours in Chennai

CHENNAI: When 63-year-old Mani* tested positive last Sunday, he had to grapple in the dark for almost four hours. Alone. Not knowing when he would be shifted to a hospital.

Around 3.30 pm, civic body staff arrived and shifted almost everyone out of that apartment where Mani lived, including his family, but left him behind. Left without food or information about his admission, Mani, a diabetic, stepped out of his home to find something to eat. Seeing a COVID-19 positive patient roaming the street shocked his neighbours.

“The test result came on Sunday morning,” says Mani’s son Shankar*.

“By 3.30 pm, the staff arrived and moved us out to a quarantine facility at the Guru Nanak College in Velachery. My father, who has kidney ailments and diabetes, was left alone at home.”

It was 7.30 pm and Mani had no idea if he would be taken to a hospital or given any food. “I could feel the blood sugar levels dipping,” he says, explaining why he had to step out of his home.

When the family found out that Mani had ventured out of home in search of food, they alerted a local activist who, in turn, called up a senior corporation official. The official immediately made arrangements for Mani to be taken to the Omandurar hospital.

“They never went back to check on him,” fumes Shankar. Statistics have shown that 73 per cent of people who died in India of COVID-19 had co-morbid conditions – diabetes, hypertension, renal or cardiac ailments – like Mani did. Luckily for Mani, his condition is now stable.

‘I got yelled’

“I returned home after I got yelled at by my neighbours,” says Mani, speaking to Express from the hospital. “Later, my elder brother who lives nearby sent me food. I didn’t know if they were coming back for me. It had been 3-4 hours since my family had left. It was also getting dark. I thought, maybe, they would return only the next day.

“We were told that he will be taken to the hospital soon after we left. But, we called him hours later found out that he was still at home,” says Shankar.

“On Tuesday morning, even the hospital staff asked my dad if he wants to go home and quarantine himself there. He told them it was not possible as he was all alone. Then they let him stay.”

A senior Corporation official said he would look into the issue. Another official of the South region said that the man was taken to the hospital by around 8 pm, four hours after the family was taken for quarantine.

“I got a call from the said activist and we immediately arranged for food and also for the man to be transported to the hospital,” the official said.

(* Names changed)