HYDERABAD: Sindhu Jakkula, a resident of Warangal spent hours waiting at the ENT Hospital, Koti, on Saturday to get a bed for her father who has been infected by black fungus. However, with no help in sight she returned to her native place with her father, whose condition is critical, around 2am on Sunday. This is not just a single case, several patients infected with black fungus, who went to ENT Hospital in Koti had to return home or wait for more than a day to get a bed. ENT Hospital is the nodal hospital for black fungus cases in the State and finding a bed in this hospital has become a nightmare for the patients.
Earlier, of the 200 beds, the hospital used to keep 185 beds for the general patients and 15 for patients undergoing surgery. Following the rise in black fungus cases, the hospital management has increased the bed capacity to 215. Despite the additional beds, the hospital does not have enough beds to accommodate all black fungus patients. It has been facing shortage of beds as patients not only from Hyderabad, but also from the districts have been approaching the centre for treatment.
Speaking to Express, Sindhu, who accompanied her 55-year-old father Sudharshan Jakkula to ENT Hospital, said, “We pleaded to the doctors to provide us a bed as the infection has reached my father’s eye. However, they refused to admit my father. We requested them to give him at least some injection, but we could not get any help,” she said. While ENT Hospital is treating only black fungus patients, who have negative Covid test report, those having Covid-19 positive report are being treated at Gandhi Hospital.
Another patient, Anjaneyulu from Wanaparthy also had a harrowing experience at ENT Hospital as the hospital management initially refused to admit him. “Right from the entrance of the hospital, we had to face several issues. We had to wait in a long queue for Out Patients,” said Ramesh, cousin of Anjaneyulu. “After waiting for long, we consulted a doctor, who said there were no beds. After several requests, he agreed to admit the patient only if we can get an MRI scan done from a private diagnostic centre. Finally, we got a bed, however, there were no doctors available to check the patients as it was a Sunday,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ramesh said that the MRI scan and CT scan machines were not working in the hospital. Even there is no provision to conduct RT- PCR test in the hospital and doctors are referring patients to private diagnostics in Himayatnagar, which is costing them over Rs 10,000 and ia a huge burden for the poor patients, he added.
Surgery with right medication can cure black fungus: Doc
“If I had done 30 mucormycosis surgeries in the last 30 years, I would have done the same number in the last two to three weeks. The situation is so bad,” Dr M Mohan Reddy, an ENT specialist and senior ENT surgeon at Nova ENT Hospital, said at an awareness talk on black fungus infection organised by the Telangana State Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Trade (TSFCCT). Dr Reddy said that doctors are in a helpless situation. “Patients who approach me are asking to operate on them, it’s so bad,” he added. “Unlike Covid-19, it doesn’t spread from person to person. In the cases reported so far, we have seen people with a history of diabetes. It doesn’t mean that all diabetics will get it. At the same time all those who were subjected to high doses of steroids may not get black fungus. Surgery coupled with right medicine can cure 90 per cent of cases,” Dr Reddy added