HYDERABAD: As Maharashtra grapples with an exponential surge in Covid- 19 cases, hospitals located hundreds of kilometres away in Hyderabad are serving as treatment centres for many from the State, and the final destination for an unfortunate few. One such patient was a 47-year-old doctor from Nanded in Maharashtra, who was cremated on Friday without his closest family by his side. His funeral was performed at a crematorium near ESI Hospital at Erragadda, nearly 300 kilometres away from his home. The doctor succumbed to Covid-19 after a 15-day battle with the disease.
Dr P Anil Kashinath was treating Covid-19 patients before the infection got him in the last week of March. His brother- in-law Sachin Phulari was with him in Hyderabad for the 15 days he was treated here. Speaking to Express, Phulari said, “We were forced to bring him to Hyderabad on realising he would not get the requisite care in Nanded.
He was admitted to Yashoda Hospital in Hyderabad. Almost 90 per cent of his lungs were affected.” “He had treated five to six Covid-19 patients before he got infected. Things are a lot worse in Nanded now. People should avoid non-essential outings,” said Phulari, who was standing in the midst of 10 other bodies being cremated at the ground on Saturday. He said that Dr Kashinath’s family had spent nearly `50,000 to transport him to Hyderabad, and another 10 lakh for treatment.
Phulari said, “It was a tough call for us to cremate him here, without his wife and children getting to see him one last time. But considering the high cost of transporting his body back and the risk of infection spread, we had to take this decision.” Officials from Gandhi Hospital said that they have routinely been treating patients from other States, who were later cremated by the GHMC without the presence of their families.