Covid patient death: Reply sought from three hospitals

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad administration has ordered an inquiry into the death of a 92-year-old Covid patient, whose family alleged that he passed away in a cab after having waited four hours for a bed at the MMG District Hospital.
District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said he had directed the city magistrate to conduct the inquiry and submit a report. Action will be taken against anyone found guilty based on the findings.
Officials said the role of the nursing home where the patient had been admitted initially and that of the private hospital where a Covid test was done on him would be looked into. The district hospital has already denied there was any delay in attending to Mangu Ram, the patient. The management said he had been brought dead to the hospital.
Responses have been sought from all the three hospitals by Tuesday evening. The statements of Mangu Ram’s family members will also be recorded.
According to his family, Mangu Ram, a resident of Kallu Pura, was brought to the district hospital around 2am on Sunday after he tested positive for Covid at Sarvodaya Hospital in Kavi Nagar. Before that, he had been admitted to Poddar Nursing Home near Old Bus Stand.
Dr RK Poddar, director of the nursing home, said, “The patient was admitted to our facility on Friday evening and referred to a higher centre on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. He had come with complications related to diabetes (hypoglycaemia). He was also suffering from dehydration. He did not have any fever, so his Covid test was not done here. After his condition deteriorated and he suffered a seizure, the patient was referred.”
Poddar added he had not received any letter from the health department so far.
Mangu Ram was taken to Sarvodaya Hospital, where he was found to have Covid after a rapid antigen test. Dr Neeraj Garg, medical superintendent of Sarvodaya, said, “We met health officials on Monday and gave our statement. A test was conducted here and the patient stayed back till the report arrived. After his family was told he had tested positive, they said they would take him to a government facility. We could not force them to stay at our hospital. His blood pressure was normal then.”
The patient’s younger son, Sant Kumar, had taken his father to the district hospital’s emergency ward, but the staff there allegedly asked him to take the elderly man to another ward at the back of the building. Sant claimed he failed to get a bed for his father despite repeated attempts.
When a doctor eventually checked on the elderly man around 6am, Mangu Ram had died in the cab in which he had been taken to the hospital. The body was packed in a bag prescribed for Covid patients and taken to the Hindon ghat in an ambulance for cremation.