THD NewsDesk, New Delhi: On the morning of 11th June 2020, a 50-year old COVID patient took his last breath on a stretcher waiting outside of the hospital to be treated. With a family of 2 children and a wife, was tested positive for the Coronavirus after regular complaints of fever at DDU. Imtiaz Ashraf Ali died waiting for hours to be treated outside the Lok Nayak Hospital, New Delhi after being referred from Deen Dyal Upadhyay (DDU) hospital, New Delhi As DDU is a non-COVID 19 hospital.
“We left DDU hospital (Deen Dyal Upadhyay) around 12:30-1 pm. An Ambulance dropped Ali outside the hospital gate, on the ground. When we got there, we were shocked. My brother could not breathe and was shivering. I was scared. I spoke to the receptionist and some doctors, but they told me that they have no beds and we’ll have to wait. They eventually placed him on a stretcher out in the open, and a doctor came at one point to check up on him and tell us that a bed will be available soon,” said Azam. (Indian Express, 2020, June 11)
Azam also added that Ali started getting out of breath at 3:30 pm, after lying down in the scorching heat waiting in the hope of being treated, as the family struggled to arrange for bedding in the hospital.
The hospital administration has denied any allegation against themselves. Dr. Ritu Saxena, from the department of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, claimed that Ali was under treatment when he died. She added that they had an adequate amount of oxygen cylinders and had arranged for a bed for Ali. “We have a gas pipeline and a liquid oxygen plant.” Said Dr. Saxena.
“As the family anxiously waited, Ali closed his eyes and was declared dead” as quoted by Azam, the brother of the deceased.
With the worldwide COVID-19 tally escalating almost up to 18 million on 2nd August, governments, professionals, and the people collectively are growing more complacent and negligent of the indispensable precautions for the prevention of a possible COVID-19 infection.
The convalescence of the population is difficult to turn a blind eye to, with cases of medical and healthcare negligence surging with each passing day.
New Delhi: In a similar case of the same hospital, a liver-patient, Shahjahan was asked to empty her bed as it was needed in the COVID-department of the hospital. She died the very next day at her family home.
The authorities just left her to die. Even when they referred us to another hospital, they refused to give us an ambulance,” quotes Mohammad Khalid, Shahjahan’s relative.
To date, we remain unaware of the concreteness of the matter. What emerges on the surface is that the available medical facilities and provisions have been stretched, taunted, and stained due to the rise in the number of medical attention seekers emerging out of this pandemic. While the affluent procure the best of the facilities, the impoverished wail to even be investigated. Albeit there prevails utter negligence from the side of the healthcare professionals, corruption and malfeasance, and the incompetence of the government to provide adequate quality healthcare provisions, poverty and ignorance of the people add to the misery. This vicious cycle is strangling many to death.
The situation is growing grave with newer heights of apathy and neglect of the concerned authorities while they continue to be helpless and unarmed without the needed and essential assistance from the higher authorities.
Meanwhile, the question of life and death lies in the cradle of morality, laxness, and destiny.