Mumbai: Days after the city's BYL Nair Hospital was converted into a dedicated coronavirus treatment centre, one of its dialysis patients, a man in his thirties, died on Monday, after having been denied admission there following the hospital's status change.
He was admitted to St George Hospital after much running around by his family. Doctors, however, claimed that the patient died as he had not undergone the procedure for the last one month and had been on some medication which had caused his health to deteriorate.
The brother of the deceased said, for the last six months his brother had been suffering kidney problems and had been undergoing treatment at their hometown in Bihar. But in mid-January both of them came to Mumbai for his treatment and were staying in Byculla.
“I kept telling my brother we should not go to Mumbai for treatment, but he wouldn't listen. I had taken him to Nair Hospital for dialysis in February but after that, we stopped going, for fear of contracting corona. My brother was taking medications,” said Jilani Khan.
"We did not know taking medicines would affect his health for the worse. On Sunday, when we reached Nair, they asked us to go elsewhere as their hospital had been converted to a Covid hospital. We were waiting for help as my brother's health was getting worse.
A local corporator arranged an ambulance and took us to the JJ hospital. From there, my brother was shifted to St George for corona testing and it was late on Sunday evening by the time my brother was admitted to the ICU ward,” Jilani added.
However, says Jilani, had his brother heeded his advice, the story may have had a different outcome. But unfortunately, the man succumbed to his illness on Monday night. Doctors took his swab samples for corona testing, reports of which are still awaited.
“He was a kidney patient who needed dialysis twice a week but for a month, he was on medication which caused his health to deteriorate. He was not in good condition when he was brought to the hospital. Before admitting him, we took his swab samples but late on Monday he died. We handed over his body to family members on Tuesday morning,” said a doctor.
