Mysuru’s KR Hospital gasps with SARI cases

The century-old KR Hospital, a lifesaver for people from Mysuru and adjoining districts, is now facing an unprecedented challenge.

MYSURU: The century-old KR Hospital, a lifesaver for people from Mysuru and adjoining districts, is now facing an unprecedented challenge. A sharp spike in Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) cases has resulted in many getting admitted to the hospital, choking its resources. As per the hospital records, there are a whopping 201 SARI patients out whom 22 are on ventilator support, perhaps the biggest number in all these decades.

The hospital is witnessing 15-20 new admissions for SARI every day, against 3-5 earlier. With SARI cases occupying most of the hospital’s critical infrastructure, accident victims and patients with other emergencies, especially from poor families who cannot afford treatment in private hospitals, are left in the lurch. “We regularly get other cases like accidents, burns and snakebite, but it has now become difficult to attend to them as our wards are filled with SARI patients,” said Dr C P Nanjaraj, Dean, Mysuru Medical College and Research Institute.

The spike is not connected to COVID-19, but is being attributed to the refusal by private hospitals to admit SARI and related cases due to the coronavirus scare. A few hospitals in the city had to be shut after COVID cases were detected. Each major hospital in the district has 10-20 cases each and the smaller hospitals have 3-5 cases. Earlier the resources used to get divided, now we are taking the entire load,” Dr Nanjaraj pointed out. Since SARI cases are under strict monitoring for COVID- 19, the hospital staff have to don PPE kits and keep the patients in isolation until the test results are back.

So far, KR Hospital has had only one COVID-19 positive case. Along with this, the hospital has 15 paediatric cases with pneumonia. Since dialysis patients are also not being entertained elsewhere, all the seven dialysis units at KRH are occupied. In what may come as some relief, the authorities have promised to equip KRH with 15 more ventilators in the coming days and to deploy additional personnel from neighbouring districts.

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