BELAGAVI: Two days after the funeral of a 57-year-old Belagavi COVID-19 patient was performed by the staff of Health Department in the presence of her family members, the family today received a phone call from authorities of Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS) saying that the patient actually died today. To the family's shock, the caller even asked them to attend her funeral.
The 57-year-old asthma patient, a government employee from Belagavi, was under treatment for respiratory illness for some time and was shifted to the COVID-19 ward in BIMS upon testing positive for virus a few days ago. On July 18, the patient spoke to her son who is under quarantine saying that she was totally neglected in the ward and was not taken care of though her condition deteriorated.
According to her relative Ravikumar, the patient even said that she was not given oxygen facility even as she had difficulty breathing. "When we reached BIMS to inquire about her, we were told at the hospital that the patient had died earlier the same day, July 18,'' said Ravikumar.
And eventually, the BIMS staff decided to perform her funeral and two of her family members were called to witness the last rites from a distance at the graveyard as per the COVID norms. By that time, the family had informed all the relatives about her demise and post-death rituals had also been done, Ravikumar said.
To their surprise, the family on Monday received a phone call from BIMS staff who informed the quarantined son that his mother actually died today.
When they contacted the in-charge of the BIMS mortuary over phone, he and another staff confirmed that the body of the 57-year-old patient was kept at the mortuary. However, the family did not tell anything about the body they had already received two days ago to the mortuary staff and assured that they will attend the funeral now.
Later, the family spoke to another official at BIMS and learnt that wrong information about the bodies was given to them by the mortuary staff. The official told them that it was the body of some other COVID-19 victim in the mortuary was cremated as their kin's.
Taking the incident seriously, the kin of the dead are planning to lodge a complaint with the police on the mess up and the way the patient was neglected before eventually passing away due to respiratory illness, allegedly without having an oxygen facility.
Meanwhile, a care-taker of a COVID-19 patient from Athani taluk told TNIE that the patient suffering from severe diabetes was not given anything to eat until afternoon that resulted in his death the next day, recently.
"When I came to know about the critical state of the patient from his relatives in Mangasuli, I went to the COVID ward to give him food. And to my shock, I found that the patient was not at all attended by any of the BIMS staff until afternoon and was given nothing to eat or drink. The patient was desperate to eat and his sugar level had shot up. Unfortunately, he died the next day,'' the care-taker, a resident of Belagavi added.
When the situation was brought to the notice of District In-charge Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, he assured that he would set the things in order by holding a meeting of all the top officials of Belagavi today. The minister said, he had received several complaints about BIMS functioning and also watched some viral videos on social media which reflected the pathetic state of the COVID ward.
The minister assured to take stock of the situation and ensure that all the patients will be given full attention and effective treatment henceforth.