BENGALURU: Shalini N C (36), who was feverish and breathless for over two weeks, died on Wednesday. Shalini tested negative for COVID-19, but was shunned by hospital authorities who refused to treat her. She was finally admitted to KC General Hospital, but left untreated for about seven hours.
Her mother is inconsolable, and knows that her daughter need not have died so early. The traumatised
family, having desperately ferried her from hospital to hospital, are performing her final rituals.
Shalini, a resident of RT Nagar in North Bengaluru, and a private firm employee, developed breathlessness and high temperature about 18 days ago. She was first taken to V Care Hospital, but was treated as an “untouchable” due to her condition, said a family member, Kamal Singh.
She was then taken to Bowring Hospital, where a COVID test was performed, and she tested negative. Shalini was treated and discharged after she showed some improvement. But the fever was back, and Shalini was taken to Shifaa Hospital, Santosh Hospital and Victoria Hospital, where the authorities displayed a similar negligence. “Each time they heard the words ‘fever’ and ‘respiratory infection’, we were treated like outcasts. Doctors were not willing to attend to her. Our experience at Victoria Hospital was the worst,” said Singh.
Finally, Shalini was taken to KC General Hospital, where she was admitted but left unattended from 1pm to about 8pm, as the hospital authorities demanded a COVID report. It was the family got it from Bowring Hospital, that treatment was started. “We begged them to treat her but to no avail,” said Singh. Medical Superintendent of KC General Hospital Dr BR Venkateshaiah told TNIE, ‘’We have been directed to compulsorily conduct a COVID test.
If we violate that rule, we might have to close the hospital wing and staff members who attend to the patient will have to be quarantined compulsorily. Some differences may have occurred.”Medico-legal consultant Dr Savio Pereira said, ‘’The system assumes that any person with breathing difficulty and fever has to be COVID-positive until proven otherwise, which is why they behave in this manner.” ‘’This is a case of utter apathy and gross negligence of professional duty by the doctors. The family can approach the consumer forum to recover damages from the hospitals,” Supreme Court advocate Ranvir Singh said.
Medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar told TNIE that it was a very unfortunate and inhuman. ‘We as doctors take the Hippocratic oath. I will request the CM to inquire into this and take action.’’ Shalini has moved on, but her family will take a long time to recover from the shock of her death, and the treatment meted out by hospitals.