In at least the third case in the district of patients with covid-like symptoms not being admitted or treated at the first hospital they visited, it has emerged that the 10-year-old girl, who died at the Ludhiana civil hospital on Friday night was denied admission at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital at Shastri Nagar, a private hospital. The girl is a resident of Dhandra Road in Dugri Phase-2 locality and this hospital was around 6km from her home. The civil hospital is around 20km from her home. Her covid-19 report is awaited.
Dr Harleen Kaur, in-charge of the emergency ward of the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, when the girl’s father, Joginder Singh, rushed her there, said, “We have dedicated one bed for treatment of covid-19. This bed was occupied, so we referred the girl to the civil hospital.”
Joginder said, “The on duty-doctor told us that they did not have a paediatric ventilator. On seeing the symptoms of my daughter, the staff and the doctors did not even let us enter the emergency and maintained distance.”
Ludhiana civil surgeon Dr Rajesh Bagga said that the matter of refusal of admission by the private hospital was being looked into. “We tried to resuscitate the girl, but couldn’t save her,” he added.
Incidentally, reports of over 100 samples collected on Thursday and Friday were also pending till the time of the filing of this report.
The girl’s body has not been handed over to the family, which has been asked to home quarantine till the report comes. A health department rapid response team conducted a survey of the area around the girl’s residence. She has no travel history and according to the family, except for playing with other children of the locality, had not visited anyone else.
{{/usCountry}}The girl’s body has not been handed over to the family, which has been asked to home quarantine till the report comes. A health department rapid response team conducted a survey of the area around the girl’s residence. She has no travel history and according to the family, except for playing with other children of the locality, had not visited anyone else.
{{/usCountry}}Two other such cases over past two weeks
In the case of district’s first casualty, Puja, 42, on March 30, a similar pattern of hospitals refusing to make timely admission or provide treatment was seen. Her relatives have claimed that she had visited the civil hospital for treatment of flu-like symptoms multiple times from March 19-26. On March 29, she was rushed to the civil hospital with breathing difficulty, referred to the Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), then to the ESI hospital, then a private hospital on the Mall Road before being admitted, ironically, to the civil hospital itself. From here, she was rushed to the Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, for want of ventilator, where she finally died.
On April 5, another 35-year-old Dugri woman, suffering from renal failure (symptoms similar to covid-19) was first referred to the CMCH from the civil hospital. From the CMCH, she was referred to a private hospital in Model Town, before being referred to the civil hospital on April 7. She is critical. Her covid report is also awaited.