[ad_1]
As he lay dying on his hospital bed after contracting coronavirus, Ravi Kumar recorded a final message for his family in Hyderabad, in India’s south.
“I can’t breathe. They removed the ventilator,” he says in the video, as he gasps for breath.
“It’s been three hours. It’s like my heart has stopped beating.”
Loading
The video ends with words that continue to haunt his family: “Bye, Daddy, bye. Bye everyone.”
Mr Kumar died just hours later. He was only 34 years old.
But the hospital treating Mr Kumar said he died from a cardiac complication, and stated his video showed he was being provided oxygen.
Hospital superintendent Mahboob Khan has since clarified that the patient was not put on a ventilator and hence it was incorrect to say it was removed.
Mr Kumar’s father, Vadlakonda Venkatesh, said the video was traumatising and something “not even his worst enemies should experience”.
“Why did God punish us like this?” Mr Venkatesh said.
Mr Kumar’s death follows a narrative that has become all too common as India grapples with a surging number of coronavirus cases.
His family members said Mr Kumar started feeling breathless one day in late June.
However, they said he was denied access to multiple hospitals because he did not have a coronavirus test.
He was eventually admitted to a general ward in the Chest Hospital, which specialises in respiratory problems, after getting a test for COVID-19 at a private clinic.
The result did not come back until after he died. It was positive.
“We rushed to the hospital after he called us,” his wife Jyoti told the ABC.
“Why would they keep a patient with such severe issues in a general ward? He should have been moved to the ICU [intensive care unit].”
Coronavirus spot fires have emerged in a number of cities
India’s early nationwide lockdown provided states with some much-needed time to prepare for the pandemic.
But since such restrictions have been lifted, hospitals in major cities have been overwhelmed by a surging number of cases, exposing a lack of preparedness.
The worst-hit city has long been Mumbai, but coronavirus spot fires have emerged in other major hubs — including Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai.
“We have started surging,” Giridhar R Babu, the head of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India, said.
“We are still in the ascending phase. Once we touch the peak it will be plateau for some time.”
In major cities, patients have waited hours or even days for a chance of being admitted to hospital.
A lack of personal protective equipment has forced doctors and nurses to stay in the same safety gear for an entire shift, leaving them drenched in sweat due to the hot and often humid conditions.
“It’s horrible,” Sujatha Rathode, a nurse at Hyderabad’s Gandhi Hospital, said.
“They cannot even go to the toilet or washroom.”
Loading
At least 99 doctors have died, and the Indian Medical Association recently issued a “Red Alert” warning members about the rate of infection within the profession.
The situation in some cities has become so bad even healthcare workers who get infected have to wait to get admitted into a special hospital set up for medical experts.
“There are 60, 70 patients in ICU. And only 10 staff,” Ms Rathode said.
“We have to run around. If the [patient] needs a ventilator, it is very, very, very horrible.”
Such pressures on health professionals and stories like Mr Kumar’s have spread far across the subcontinent, leading to distrust in the public health system and fear that hospital admission can actually make things worse.
Some families have refused to take their children to hospital
Australian mother Swathi Balijepalli was stuck in Hyderabad with her one-year-old for four months during the lockdown, separated from her husband in Australia.
She barely left the house and refused to take her son to hospital, despite being a month overdue for immunisations.
“I’m extremely scared to go to the hospital,” she said.
“Considering the current situation, it’s completely unsafe to go to hospital here and get his vaccination done.
“All the hospitals are overcrowded. There is no hope that if someone gets infected with the virus that they’ll be treated at the hospital with the same care as a rich person, unless you have a really high recommendation, or you know the doctor.”
Ms Balijepalli is set to finally be reunited with her husband, having boarded the last flight to leave India before flights were cancelled due to Victoria’s outbreak.
India is only the third country to have more than 1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and it continues to break daily records, with more than 40,000 cases recently recorded for the first time.
After initially lifting lockdowns, the spread of the virus has meant many cities and states have had to go back to tougher restrictions, including Pune, Bangalore and West Bengal.
“When Mumbai was surging and Delhi was trying to grapple with those issues, the other cities should have anticipated similar problems,” Professor Babu said.
“If the health system cannot cater to the surge in cases, then there is a justification of using lockdowns to try and contain to a level which the health system can manage.”
But the reasons for lockdown differ in every region, Professor Babu explained.
“Chennai went in [lockdown] because of increased surge in cases,” he said.
“But in Bangalore’s case, lockdown was necessary because they wanted to fix some coordination mechanisms.
“Lockdown is not the strategy by itself for any state — it’s only a temporary measure to get up the preparedness.”
Signs of hope beginning to emerge
But there are also glimpses of good news.
The national capital, New Delhi, is showing signs of stabilisation after it tackled a surge in June with a testing blitz and a bolstering of hospital capacities.
Meanwhile, an outbreak in Mumbai’s largest slum, Dharavi, is now recording single-digit daily increases after authorities installed hand sanitiser pumps, bolstered testing, and removed the vulnerable from the densely packed neighbourhood.
India has also allowed private hospitals to join the fight against the coronavirus, and patients are no longer shuffled into the public system regardless of symptoms, which has eased pressures on hospitals.
The fatality rate still remains far below European nations, something the Government continues to promote as a sign of success.
That’s despite the reasons for this remaining unclear.
Professor Babu said surpassing 1 million was a “relief” as it showed India was ramping up testing.
“States are realising that home isolation of mild and asymptomatic cases is the way forward,” he said.
“If you’re able to do that, we are able to take care of 80 per cent of the burden just at home.”
[ad_2]
Source link