‘No ICU bed available’, 21-year-old dies two hours after being discharged from hospital

PUNE : Doctors at the hospital said the student was detected Covid positive a month ago but had subsequently recovered
She died at the jumbo Covid facility in Nehrunagar on Saturday.

Barely two hours after a 21-year-old student was discharged from a private hospital in Pimpri-Chinchwad, she died at the jumbo Covid facility in Nehrunagar on Saturday. The patient, who was in critical condition, was discharged from the private hospital as it had no vacant ICU bed.

The patient, a resident of Gharkul, was admitted to Dr D Y Patil Hospital in Pimpri about five days ago. Doctors at the hospital said the student was detected Covid positive a month ago but had subsequently recovered. However, she started feeling uneasy five days ago, and her relatives admitted her to the Dr D Y Patil Hospital.

“On Saturday morning, doctors at the hospital said they had no ICU bed available and therefore she should be shifted to another hospital,” said Anita Adhikari, a relative of the patient and president of Nari Shakti Sanstha, Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Dr M S Barthwal, head of the department at Dr D Y Patil Hospital, said, “The patient was suffering from a severe form of tuberculosis. She had this illness for a long period of time. A month ago, she had tested positive for Covid-19, but recovered from the infection. When her condition deteriorated, she needed an ICU bed. However, as our ICU beds are reserved for Covid-19 patients, we contacted another hospital in Moshi where a bed was available. We provided our ambulance for shifting her.”

The patient’s relatives, however, said the Moshi hospital had no beds available and directed them to the jumbo Covid hospital at Nehrunagar.

PCMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Santosh Patil said, “The patient had TB and was brought to our Covid facility in the morning with an extremely low oxygen saturation level of 15 per cent. Since her oxygen saturation level was low, she was admitted at the facility. However, she died one-and-a-half hours later.”

Adhikari, however, claimed the student was in good condition and was talking to her relatives. “Just because an ICU bed was not available, we lost her…. Though the PCMC is claiming that ICU beds are available in city, the facts are something else. We have lodged a complaint with the PCMC commissioner about how serious patients are being made run from pillar to post for getting an ICU bed,” she said

Report by PTI
Reported on – 10-October-2020