VIJAYAWADA: The wife of a man who was being treated for COVID-19 symptoms, alleged negligence on part of Liberty Hospital, Vijayawada in the death of her husband on August 23.
Speaking to the media here on Saturday, the woman said: “I admitted my husband to the hospital on the night of August 10 and he was not critical at the time of admission. In fact, doctors told me that he was recovering two days later. They also said that they were giving him Remdesivir. However, later my husband started complaining about staff’s indifferent attitude towards him. When I brought this to the notice of a doctor, he simply ignored saying that it was only my anxiety. On August 21, when he was unable to breathe properly, he had to clap hard to grab the attention of the hospital staff. After a long struggle, fortunately, a nurse took notice and changed a defective equipment.”
After the incident, she requested for permission to stay at the hospital to help her husband.
“He was fine till the noon of August 22 when an equipment stopped working and his oxygen saturation level started falling. The untrained staff could do little even as I demanded a doctor’s presence. Three hours later, a doctor came and declared my husband dead,” she said.
The woman also alleged that the hospital charged her exorbitantly and did not provide her bills for Rs 15 lakh charged for the 12-day treatment. Dr Ravi, managing director of Liberty Hospital, said, “She does not have the bills because she told us that she would come back for them after a few days as she wanted to claim insurance, to which we had agreed.”
Denying all allegations levelled by the woman, Dr Ravi said: “The lady and her father brought the patient to us on August 10, 10 days after he fell sick. When his health deteriorated, she first took him to Rajamahendravaram, where the hospitals were not ready to admit him. On her father’s suggestion, she brought him here in an ambulance. We observed that the 95 per cent of the patient’s lungs had collapsed and his saturation levels were low at the time of admission. He was in a critical condition and could hardly breathe.”
After the woman brought the issue to the notice of Krishna district collector A Md Imtiaz, the latter ordered an inquiry and constituted a three-member committee.
“A three-member committee, headed by district coordinator for health services, has been formed to investigate the matter and submit a report to the state government,” said Imtiaz. Responding to the inquiry ordered, Dr Ravi said the hospital management has all the evidence to prove that proper medical treatment was given to the patient.