Ambulance dumps Covid suspect who searched for bed in four districts

BENGALURU: Sumaiya, a 33-year-old Covid suspect, travelled through four districts in search of a bed, oxygen and ventilator over the course of a single day, only to pass away in the night on the premises of a hospital in Mandya.She went from Tumakuru to Mandya then to Channapatna and back to Mandya but failed to get medical treatment.

The ambulance driver who took her from Tumakuru to Mandya dumped her at the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, threatening to cut off oxygen supply if she did not get off. This delayed her access to treatment further as her neighbour had to scout for another ambulance.

Narrating the ordeal, her brother Mohammad Ismail said Sumaiya first developed wheezing, fever, headache and cough. A doctor near her house asked her to get admitted as she may have contracted Covid. A doctor from a government hospital in Tumakuru visited their home and asked them to get admitted at 11 am on Wednesday. But when Sumaiya’s neighbour took her there, they refused to treat her, claiming that there was no bed. She was given oxygen while seated on a chair. Her condition worsened and they hired an ambulance to go to Mandya, where Ismail stays.

“She came to MIMS, but the ambulance driver dumped her. He warned that if she did not get off, he would cut her oxygen supply. We had no option but to pay him and let him leave. MIMS too did not have a bed and we had to hire another ambulance to go to a government hospital in Channapatna, where we heard there was a bed,” Ismail said, adding that by this time Sumaiya’s heart rate had gone down.

The hospital at Channapatna did not admit her either and they had to come back to MIMS, begging for oxygen and a bed. She was left on the ground of the hospital compound and given drips, but unfortunately she died. A widow, she is survived by three kids.