Hospital didn’t have bed, ambulance refused oxygen facility: Family’s ordeal after doctor succumbs to Covid-19

The family of a 36-year-old general physician from Shivaji Nagar who contracted Covid-19 struggled for 24 hours to get him admitted to a hospital.

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Many hospitals refused to admit him due to unavailability of beds or lack of treatment facilities for the novel coronavirus. Even ambulances refused to ferry the physician.

After the ordeal, the doctor succumbed to his infection on Thursday night after undergoing treatment at Raheja Hospital. This is the second death of a doctor in the city due to Covid-19. This comes at a time when already over 250 medical staffers have contracted the virus through cross-transmission in hospitals.

Unlike hundreds of other private practitioners, he didn’t close down his clinic and attended to his patients daily at Shivajinagar. But on April 14, he developed diarrhoea. He didn’t have any coronavirus symptoms like fever, cold or dry cough. He self-medicated but as his condition deteriorated, the family called the civic-run Kasturba Gandhi Hospital which refused to admit him due to lack of beds.

They were on their way to Sir JJ hospital when the physician, in a semi-conscious state, asked to give him oxygen immediately. Soon, they diverted the ambulance and shifted him to Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Sion.

“They admitted my brother but the hospital didn’t have any designated bed in the Intensive Care Unit for Covid-19 patients. Then we called Kohinoor Hospital which also didn’t have a Covid facility. Finally KJ Somaiya Hospital agreed to admit him,” said his 30-year-old brother, who is also a general physician.

At Somaiya hospital, the physician was immediately admitted to a Covid-specific ICU. But soon, his creatinine level increased to 7 and needed immediate dialysis as his kidneys were getting affected. The hospital, however, didn’t have dialysis facility for coronavirus patients.

Dr VA Sabnis, dean of KJ Somaiya hospital confirmed that the hospital doesn’t have dialysis facility for covid patients. He said, “I am not aware of this case.”

It was around 11pm on April 15, when they were referred to Raheja Hospital. But even after waiting for six hours, they couldn’t find a cardiac ambulance to ferry the patient.

“I called the 108 ambulance service which said that the driver will take 85 minutes to reach Sion from CST. Then with the help of other doctors, we managed to get a private ambulance for Rs 3,000 but it refused to give CPAP (an oxygen supplying procedure with air pressure),” said the brother. Ultimately, they had to take the patient in a general ambulance on normal oxygen support.

Dr Dnyaneshwar Shelke, the chief operating officer of ‘MEMS- Dial 108’, said that he will inquire into the matter. “We have 30 ambulances for Covid-19 patients. I will have to inquire into the matter and see who was on duty on that night,” he said.

They reached Raheja Hospital around 5.30 am on April 16. The hospital started his dialysis but he developed Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and succumbed.

“He didn’t have any comorbid issues and wore safety kits sincerely while treating patients. I had asked him to close down the clinic but for the well being of his patients, he didn’t,” said his brother. “Despite coming from a doctor’s family, we had to struggle so much to get him admitted. I wonder about the condition of other patients,” he added.

Dr Ramesh Bharmal, director of major hospitals (KEM, Sion, Nair and Cooper), said, “We are already working on formulating rules to avoid such harassment of patients. I am unaware of this incident and won’t be able to comment.”

Sion hospital took two days to give his swab report to the family. It was only the second day of admission at Raheja Hospital, they received his report which confirmed he was Covid-19 positive.