A 72-year-old man died in the ambulance after he was denied treatment at three hospitals including a government medical college in Kottayam district of Kerala on Thursday.
Idukki-native Jacob Thomas alias Chackochan, who later died in the ambulance outside the Kottayam Medical College, was denied admission in the hospitals citing the unavailability of ventilator facility. The septuagenarian was suffering from pneumonia and was prescribed to the medical college for expert treatment by a hospital in Kattappana on Wednesday, local media reported.
Jacob was taken to Kottayam by his daughter Reni and other relatives. After he was denied admission at the medical college due to unavailability of ventilators, he was taken to Caritas Hospital and Matha Hospital. However, both places disagreed to admit him, forcing Reni to take him back to the medical college. But Jacob's condition worsened before anything could be done and he breathed his last in the ambulance on Thursday evening.
The autopsy report stated heart attack as the cause of death.
"For two-and-half hours, we rushed from one hospital to another, but all three hospitals ignored my Papa. They did not hear our desperate pleas of help." The medical college PRO said, ‘It is not possible to treat here. You should have called in advance'", Manorama reported Reni as saying.
She accused the team at the emergency wing of the medical college of acting irresponsibly. "Though we said father had chest pain and it could be a heart attack, the doctors refused to treat him," she said.
The medical college denied all the allegations levelled by the victim's kin and said their doctors committed no error. They accused the hospital in Kattappana for referring him to Kottayam without checking the availability of ventilator facility.
Jacob Thomas' funeral would be held at Kozhimala St Joseph Church on Friday morning.