Covid-19: Delhi doctor dies, was on heart-lung bypass machine support for three months

The doctor, identified as Amit Gupta, was a senior resident with the department of paediatrics at Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital but couldn’t get a bed in the hospital after contracting the infection on duty.

A 39-year-old resident doctor of a Delhi government hospital who had contracted Covid-19 during the second wave died on Saturday after being on ECMO support (similar to a heart-lung bypass machine) for nearly three months and undergoing a lung transplant earlier this month.

The doctor’s family had received ₹83 lakh for his treatment from the Delhi government, upon the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission. (HT file photo)

The doctor’s family had received ₹83 lakh for his treatment from the Delhi government, upon the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission.

The doctor, identified as Amit Gupta, was a senior resident with the department of paediatrics at Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital but couldn’t get a bed in the hospital after contracting the infection on duty. He was admitted to Maharaja Agrasen Hospital and then shifted to Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital when his condition deteriorated and was put on ventilator support.

With the condition of his lungs not improving, the family had to look for ECMO beds (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is a machine that performs the functions of the heart and the lungs) as a bridge for a lung transplant.

Gupta was a contractual staff of the Delhi government, due to which they are not entitled to healthcare benefits on the lines of regular employees. “The Delhi government is paying an ex gratia of ₹1,00,00,000 to the next of kin of the corona warriors, but not taking care while they fell sick during the course of their public duties,” the NHRC had observed on May 19 on a complaint filed by Gupta’s family.

The NHRC had asked the union health ministry as well as the Delhi government to offer adequate medical care and financial protection to contractual medical and paramedical staff, including “getting medical insurance to facilitate their treatment in private hospitals in these testing times.”