BENGALURU: Covid mortality analysis of patients in Victoria Hospital found that of 370 deaths due to Covid-19, 71 were within 12 hours of admission and 32 were within 24 hours of admission. The hospital has treated 5,000 Covid patients so far, and for the first three months of the pandemic in Karnataka, it was the only hospital permitted to treat Covid patients in Bengaluru.
“They were referred by private and corporate hospitals, intubated and in severe condition such as bilateral covid pneumonia and septicemia. During the initial phase, they would be admitted for pneumonia in other hospitals and as soon as the Covid test result came positive, they would be shifted to Victoria. We have seen deaths happening even within one hour of admission.
If death happens within 10-12 hours, it doesn’t amount to death in our ICU,” said Dr Smitha Segu, nodal officer for Covid-19 treatment, Victoria Hospital. While the exact reasons why patients were referred at the last stage is not known, the possible causes could be patients’ inability to afford treatment in private hospitals, lack of facilities such as ventilators in mid-size hospitals, and private hospitals not wanting Covid mortalities on their hands.
Hospitals with 30-40 beds may not have adequate facilities and treatment cost trebles in the ICU. “The patients who passed away soon after being referred to Victoria, suffered non-Covid morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, chronic kidney disease needing dialysis etc. We have also had 43 deaths due to non-Covid reasons in Covid-positive patients, such as malignancy, road traffic accidents, etc,” Dr Segu added.
Several who came in a critical stage, died within 4-5 hours. These deaths were among the 50-60, 70-79 and 80-89 age groups. Anesthetists and ICU specialists say that ideally, patients should not be shifted when they are in the intubated stage. They do well in the beginning, suddenly turn breathless and collapse, even before the hospital is able to put them on intubation.
“These cases have been a learning curve for the ICU team, including doctors from the department of anaesthesia, medicine and pulmonology. Being a government hospital, we have not refused any patient,” Dr Segu added. Member of the Covid Death Audit committee in Karnataka and pulmonologist, Dr K S Satish said, “Earlier, only Victoria Hospital was designated to treat Covid. Patients who presented late were aged above 60, had comorbidities and were admitted in the ICU, with or without ventilator, passed away soon after admission. However, later on, all hospitals opened up and there is more awareness on reporting early.”