BENGALURU: Deepthi Ravi (name changed) recently lost her mother to Covid-19. Two days later, her brother’s oxygen saturation dropped and he had to be rushed to KIMS Hospital in Bengaluru. He was lucky to get an ICU bed under Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike quota. But the family is now struggling to get in touch with him or get any update on his condition from the hospital.
Similarly, a security personnel’s pregnant wife was admitted to Bowring Hospital with Covid-19. She delivered two days ago and was moved to the ICU in a critical condition. Since then, the family has neither heard from her nor from the hospital.There are hundreds of such instances at both private and government hospitals where patients’ families are spending tense moments as they fail to get any sort of information after their loved ones are shifted to an ICU.
“We received no communication about my mother, except that her saturation was improving, for four continuous days. During this time, we were busy performing the last rites of my father who had succumbed to Covid. My mother got in touch with us using the phone of another patient and said she needed water. We had to pull strings to communicate with the doctors and inform them that she wanted water. On the fifth day, we got a call saying that she too had died,” said Soujanya Ramesh, who lost her mother at Victoria Hospital.
“My husband was hysterical and used to cry so loudly each time I called him. I could do nothing but just helplessly listen to him. I managed to get in touch with the doctor treating him through my friend and,” said Christine Raj, who didn’t want to name the hospital.Hospitals, however, claim that they do not allow patients in critical condition to carry mobile phones into ICUs as it could cause infections.
“We communicate with the families. Due to an increase in cases, we do not communicate with them daily. But we call the families or attendants on alternate days. We also call the relatives if there is any emergency,” said a doctor from Bowring Hospital. Meanwhile, a doctor from a private hospital said that they communicate with the families each day either at 1.30 pm or by 8.30 pm