E-Paper
Covid patients in Hyderabad hospital protest after body left on bed for hours
The incident came to light in the evening when some of the patients in the ward complained to their family members that the body of a Covid-19 victim had been lying on the bed since morning and that the entire ward was stinking.
In a case of utter callousness by the authorities at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad, the body of a Covid-19 victim was left unattended on the bed for nearly eight hours on Tuesday, triggering protests from other patients undergoing treatment in the ward.
The incident came to light in the evening when some of the patients in the ward complained to their family members that the body of a Covid-19 victim had been lying on the bed since morning and that the entire ward was stinking.
“Apparently, the inmates in the ward brought to the notice of the hospital authorities about the death of a patient in the morning, but nobody bothered about it. Unable to bear the stench coming from the dead body, some of the patients moved out of the ward,” a relative of a Covid-19 patient said.
It was only after the other inmates raised a hue and cry that the hospital authorities shifted the body to the mortuary.
Gandhi Hospital is the designated government hospital for Covid-19 and has been declared as centre of excellence.
Later in the night, superintendent of Gandhi Hospital Dr Raja Rao issued a statement acknowledging that there was delay in shifting the body from the ward and attributed the same to the strike by outsourced staff, sanitary workers and security personnel since the morning.
Rao, however, said the delay was not up to seven or eight hours as claimed by the other patients. “The patient expired at around 1 pm. As per the protocol, we had to take the Electro Cardio Gram (ECG) to confirm the death and document the same. This exercise was delayed,” he said.
The superintendent further said the clearance of the dead body was also delayed because only a few regular staff members were available because of the strike by other staff. “With the available workers, we were forced to manage 6 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and all other wards. As we concentrated more on patient care and treatment, clearing the body got delayed,” he explained.
Rao also denied the reports that the body was decaying. “The dead body does not putrefy and emanate stench in a few hours. But, in this big pandemic, where so many people are fearing even to enter Gandhi Hospital, every one of us is working hard. Anyway, we will see that it will not happen again,” he said.
Meanwhile, the outsourcing, sanitation, security and patient care staff have called for indefinite strike demanding settlement of their pending demands.
