This is the bizzare and shocking incident, which is untolerable at government run Osmania General Hospital (OGH) in Hyderabad, where Covid patients designated Covid Isolation Ward has become a point of sheer negligence and apathy of authorities. Here, in Osmania General Hospital, 20 patients had to share space with two bodies for over seven hours of horrible experience.
As, details shows, when 45-year-old Satish went to OGH, he was told his recurrent kidney issue became worse and he needs immediate treatment. However, since he reported serious Covid- 19 symptoms during doctors investigations, he was sent to the OGH isolation ward for three days.
Little did he know that during the three days, he would be sharing his ward with those who are dead patients, lying unattended and nobody cares. He had a harrowing experience at OGH isolation ward for Covid-19 suspects, where many patients had to spend excruciating number of hours beside lifeless bodies due to administrative apathy.
#KhabarLive visited the eighth ward isolation centre at OGH and found one of the wards with 20 patients, forced to share the space with two dead patients for over seven hours.
“It has been three days and I am somehow holding on. I have been forced to sit beside a dead woman and fight the thought that I would die next,” shared Satish sitting on the bed with his wife.
Barely a space of 100 metres sets them apart in the packed room. It is learnt that the bodies are of individuals who came to the hospital two to four days ago and died even before the results came.
Since, they are still in suspected stage and their test results are yet to come, the hospital authorities have left the bodies in the ward itself.
“We came from Chevella on Saturday as my 70-year-old mother-in-law was breathless. On Monday morning she died and now we are running pillar to post to get the test results,” said Sultana Begum, the attendant of the deceased.
It is only a piece of blanket that covers her late mother-in-law. The flowers for the final rites are placed beside her body in a cover.
“The protocol is that when a person dies without giving a sample, we let them take the body immediately. However, if samples are given, then the protocol is to wait until the report comes. Usually, in that phase, the body is shifted to the mortuary,” informed a doctor on duty. However, ward staff on duty said the delay in shifting bodies to the mortuary is because of shortage in trolleys.
“We have to shift 10-15 bodies in a day and there are only two trollies,” added a ward staff member.
Meanwhile, Body of a coronavirus patient left unattended inside a ward at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad for hours after his death due to the lack of staff.
According to the hospital authorities, the incident occurred as most of the workers were on strike. Nurses and ward boys staged a protest at the hospital demanding salary hike and better facilities. Nearly 700 sanitation workers, security guards and patient care personnel also joined the protest demanding salary hike and regularization of their employment.
No one was there to attend the patient after several hours of death since the staff were on strike, Gandhi Hospital authorities said.
The hospital superintendent Raja Rao said that they are managing the six ICU and all the wards with the available staff. “Since the administration is concentrating more on patient care and treatment, shifting of the body got delayed,” Raja Rao said.
However, this is not the time that Gandhi Hospital was in the news. Earlier, the hospital hit the headlines when it delivered the wrong dead body to the patient family who conducted the last rites. The incident came to light after the family of the wrong body contacted the hospital. #KhabarLive #hydnews
