HYDERABAD: There's an uncanny resemblance in the way Gandhi Hospital had dealt with Narendra Singh, the missing patient who was recently found dead in the hospital mortuary, and Manoj, a Telugu journalist who died at Gandhi earlier this month. It is learnt that both of them had complained to their families about the poor medical attention they were receiving in the hospital, despite their deteriorating health condition.
Manoj’s family was at least informed of his death, whereas Singh’s family was not even aware of it until after a police investigation. Singh had gone missing after he was taken to Gandhi Hospital on the suspicion of Covid-19 and his body was discovered 21 days later in the hospital mortuary by the police.
While a report on Singh’s visceral samples is awaited, neither his family nor the police are willing to accept the hospital’s version of the story. Gandhi Hospital superintendent had told Express on Saturday they didn’t have any record of Singh’s admission and that he was brought dead to the hospital.
However, looking back on the fateful day of May 30, Shailendra, Singh’s cousin, said, “We could not get a 108 ambulance despite waiting for half an hour. We then took him to King Koti in an auto. When we reached there, the doctors told us that he might be Covidinfected. He was sent in an ambulance with another man to Gandhi Hospital. After reaching Gandhi, we spoke to him over the phone twice.”
Shailendra’s younger brother Mukesh said that when they spoke over the phone, Singh had complained of lack of proper medical attention and poor treatment at Gandhi Hospital. When contacted, the officials at Mangalhat police station, where Singh’s family had lodged a missing complaint, swore that he was alive when he was sent to Gandhi in the ambulance. Further, Singh’s phone, using which he had called his family, has not been retrieved from the hospital. As mentioned earlier, this is the second such case of Covid- 19 death in Gandhi Hospital, wherein the patient had complained of poor service and lack of medical attention; the first one being Manoj, the Telugu journalist.
Cops, scribes on the edge
A few journalists, police personnel and local Congress leaders are on the edge after senior leader V Hanumantha Rao tested positive for Covid. They had accompanied him to the Sitarama Lift Irrigation Project in Kothagudem to participate in the Jaladeeksha. When he was arrested in Laxmidevipalli, scribes, politicos and cops came in contact with him