HYDERABAD: When 45-year-old Satish (name changed) went to Osmania General Hospital (OGH), he was told his recurrent kidney issue became worse and he needs treatment.
However, since he reported serious Covid-19 symptoms, 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. 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.
TNIE visited the eighth ward isolation centre at OGH on Monday 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 a few metres set 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.
The acute shortage of manpower and staff has aggravated the situation. It is learnt that the staff to patient ratios are very skewed adding to the burden on the limited staffers available. This has lead to unwarranted delays in shifting of bodies to the mortuary because the same staff has to tend to the other surviving patients.
“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.