60-year-old Covid-19 patient dies without treatment in Delhi

NEW DELHI: With Covid-19 cases spiralling in Delhi, it is becoming difficult to secure a bed at a hospital within a reasonable time. The death of a 60-year-old man, Lakhjeet Singh, after he failed to get a bed in any hospital has brought out this stark reality. His daughter, Amarpreet, went on Twitter to break the news, saying, ‘The govt failed us.’
Speaking to TOI, Amarpreet’s husband, Mandeep Singh, recalled the nightmare they had undergone in the past few days. He said his father-in-law was tested at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on May 31, when he had persistent fever. “Since it was raining heavily and there was no proper arrangement in the waiting area, all of us, including my father-in-law, got drenched. We had to wait for over three hours,” he said.
A day later, his report came in: he had tested positive. “We persistently tried calling Sir Ganga Ram Hospital but there was no response. For the next two days, we reached out to Max, Apollo, AIIMS and Safdarjung to know if we could get him admitted as his condition was deteriorating, but they all said they had no beds. Ganga Ram was still unresponsive,” he said.
“When all our efforts were in vain, we started calling the helplines, but the phone was constantly busy. This was when we took to Twitter seeking help since all doors seemed to have been closed,” said Singh. “On Wednesday, we decided to take him to LNJP Hospital since there was no other option. We were ready to stand in the queue but couldn’t have stayed at home and tried the board numbers any longer. His fever had touched 102 by now. So, we couldn’t stay there for long and returned home.”
His fever kept rising and his condition worsened. So, at 5am on Thursday, they called up some hospitals again but with no luck. Finally, the helpline responded and they were asked to go to LNJP as they had 1,100 vacant beds.
They rushed to the hospital at 6.50am. “We were very hopeful now and kept telling my father-in-law everything would fall in place. However, when we reached there, we were told that we should take him to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital since he was a “patient” from there. “While this was going on, my father-in-law dropped unconscious,” said Singh.
“I quickly put him on a stretcher with the help of a passer-by and rushed to one of the doctors and begged him to treat him. After a lot of persuasion, when he finally agreed to see my father-in-law, he was already dead,” he said.
Expressing their condolences, the hospital has denied that the patient was refused admission and claimed that he was examined by doctors upon being brought in. The statement said the patient was brought to the hospital between 7.10 am and 7.30 am. “It was found that the Lok Nayak Hospital’s auto-generated electronic casualty record had registered the patient in question as “Brought Dead” at 7.37 am. When incorrect and false claims are made about the hospital staff and widely publicised on the internet, it severely demoralises them and hurts their morale,” said the hospital.
Ganga Ram Hospital said “there is no truth in the allegations. However, we sympathise with the family for their loss.”
Meanwhile, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Kumar said the Delhi Corona App has turned out to be a non-starter as despite the availability of beds in hospitals earmarked exclusively for Covid-19 patients, people were not being admitted.