A newly-wed bride in Odisha died of Covid-19 on Saturday after allegedly failing to get a hospital bed in the state capital of Bhubaneswar.
Swarnalata, 25, breathed her last in an ambulance. Her husband, Bishnu Charan Bhol, 29, visited at least nine hospitals in the city, but was turned down citing full occupancy.
She was cremated on Sunday afternoon at Satya Nagar crematorium in the city.
Bhol said he tried his luck almost everywhere, knocking the doors of the AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, and the state-run Capital Hospital but, everywhere he was told that no beds were vacant. They also told him that they could not help him, as his wife had not undergone a Covid test.
“I pleaded with the authorities but everywhere I was asked to leave. I was shocked by the behaviour of hospital authorities as at some places they asked the guards to drive me out. None helped me because I am a farmer and semiliterate. I am feeling completely broken,” the husband said.
Bhol, a resident of Indolo Kusiari village under Balipatna block near Bhubaneswar, got married to Swarnalata on April 28.
“Our wedding was just a fortnight old. It was fixed six months ago, but had been delayed because of the pandemic. During the last six months, we had chatted and talked about our dreams. We had dreamt to build a house in the village and lead a happy life with our kids. Now all those dreams are gone,” Bhol told The Telegraph from the crematorium.
Swarnalata had started running temperature only five days ago. “I immediately got in touch with my in laws. We gave her some medicines after consulting the nearby by medical shops. She used to have temperature late in the evening and by the morning it used to subside.”
“As her health was deteriorating, I took her to the government hospital at Athantar near my village. As we don’t have the Covid report of Swarnalata, the local doctor referred us to the Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar which is 25km from my village,” Bhol said.
When the government ambulance did not immediately turn up, Bhol hired a private ambulance.
“As soon as I reached the Capital Hospital around 11. 30am on Saturday, they asked me go to the SCB Medical College, Cuttack, which is 35km from Capital Hospital. So, I decided to go to the AIIMS, which is nearly 10km,” Bhol said.
But the AIIMS, too, refused to admit Swarnalata as she did not have a Covid report and her condition had deteriorated. “Later, I went with her to almost every hospital in the city trying my luck with them one by one and moved around the city for nearly 100km in five hours. I even paid Rs 35,000 to the ambulance driver as he used six oxygen cylinders during the journey.”
Turned away by the hospitals, Bhol returned to the Athantar Hospital once again near his village. “It was too late by the time I reached there. She passed away in the ambulance itself. I was completely broken,” said Bhol, who is the only son of his parents.
Local ward member Sushant Kumar Biswal said: “After we intervened, the Athantar Hospital authorities did the Covid test of the patient and it turned out to be positive. Had the medical authorities intervened at the right time and provided her a bed in the ICU, her life could have been saved.”
Following a rise in complaints about patients not getting ICU beds, the state government has constituted four flying squads that would inspect different hospitals and ensure that patients get beds.
Additional chief secretary and head of health and family welfare department, P.K. Mohapatra told this newspaper: “We are examining this particular incident. We will certainly take steps if anyone is found guilty. Why not the relatives of the patients availed the government ambulance. We do have beds. But only deserving patients will get them.”
