Five hospitals in two days: Denied bed, man dies in Delhi

NEW DELHI: For Vikas Jain, what started out as a simple fever for his brother-in-law, 47-year-old Narender Jain , in the last week of May turned out to be what he had feared the most. In a now-familiar story playing out virtually every day in the city, Narender, who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, died on June 3 after being shuttled between five different hospitals for two days for the lack of a bed.
Narender was first taken to hospital on June 1 after his fever kept rising and he became breathless. The family first took him to a local hospital in Shahdara, little knowing that they would have to move from one hospital to another just for treatment.
Vikas says after approaching the first hospital, they were told it did not have a facility to get a coronavirus test done. They then headed to Pushpanjali Medical Centre at Karkardooma, where they say his symptoms were checked, but again it was not equipped to handle Covid-19 patients.
" We then went to Max Patparganj and the situation was even worse there. They had no beds, but after pleading with them to admit him as his condition was getting worse and he was having trouble breathing, they finally agreed but said he would be admitted as an emergency case, asking me to deposit 50,000 upfront," said Jain, who says a number of tests were done on him before he was ultimately checked for Covid-19.
"On June 2 at around 8am, he was tested for Covid-19 and before that, we were told his sugar was high, he had water in his lungs and had kidney problems too. They wanted permission from me for a dialysis too, but I refused. After the test was done, we waited for an entire day and on June 3 at 9am, we got to know he had tested positive. The hospital flat out refused to treat him any further, saying they had no beds for Covid-19 patients," said Jain, stating the family was shocked at the lack of availability of beds. Vikas says his brother-in-law had diabetes, but otherwise lived a healthy life.
When they asked Max for an alternative, Jain said they were referred to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital at Tahirpur. "We asked them to ensure there were beds, but when we reached at around 2pm on June 3, they told us an ICU bed would be needed for his condition, and none were available. We were then told to go to GTB Hospital, but we had to wait for nearly two hours as no private ambulance was ready to take a Covid-19 patient and the government ambulance wasn't arriving. Finally, I convinced a private ambulance to take him to GTB and we reached at 5pm," said Jain, who says after being admitted, there was little attention given to his brother-in-law.
Jain says within hours, Narender's condition deteriorated and he was dead by 7.30pm. "We kept asking them to put him on a ventilator, but they said it wasn't required. After that, we waited for a couple of hours and no one was there to move his body to the mortuary. When someone came, it was only one staff attendant and I had to help him," said Jain, who says when they reached Nigambodh Ghat for cremation the next day, it was teeming with bodies being cremated according to Covid-19 protocol. "We waited nearly three hours for the cremation as there were so many bodies before us."
Jain, who has since then even posted on Facebook, warning others to take the situation seriously and not venture out, says his sister and her three children have also tested positive now. "At the hospital you would assume they would be better prepared, but we moved his body around ourselves at so many places. My brother was diabetic, but he was healthy otherwise and we lost him in a matter of days. We can only hope others don't suffer the way we did," he says.
When contacted, an official from Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, told TOI they were unaware of the facts of the case and will be looking into the details. A response from Max Patparganj was awaited.