Standing in front of the Seth Baldev Das District hospital Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh (civil hospital), the relatives of Madhu Ram complain that Madhu died after he was denied being admitted by the staff on duty.
Madhu Ram, a 58-year-old resident of village Sarseena, Block Nagal breathed his last at 2:00 PM in front of the emergency ward of Civil hospital Saharanpur.
This comes at a time UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited Saharanpur to review measures in tackling the lethal run of COVID-19’s second wave.
“We were roaming from hospital to hospital from 7 AM, no one admitted him” complains the bereaved family. Madhu’s family carried an oxygen cylinder because they didn’t want to be denied admission because of the lack of oxygen. A villager who accompanied him to the hospital told Maktoob that “he was a gem of a person, he would give medicine to the villagers on experience basis and people were very happy with him.”
Madhu’s nephew along with his relatives took him to the Community Health Centre, Deoband. Madhu tested positive for coronavirus after which he was referred to Glocal Hospital, Saharanpur which is a dedicated COVID-19 care hospital.
At Glocal Hospital, they were told that the hospital doesn’t have enough facility as of now.
After the denial to admit him the family rushed him to CHC Fatehpur, Block Muzzafarabad, another dedicated COVID-19 health centre where he was again denied admission.
Apart from a government hospital, there are 5 private hospitals nominated as COVID-19 care hospitals in Saharanpur.
The oxygen level was falling and Madhu was getting breathless. “We keep requesting them to admit him to Fatehpur but they didn’t listen to us. His oxygen level fell to 40,” tells his relative.
“We decided to bring him to Seth Baldev Das District Hospital (Civil Hospital) Saharanpur, the staff here didn’t admit him. He was having difficulty in breathing but he was alive,” he added.
While mourning his death, the relative points towards the empty beds and tells and says: “These beds are for show off, the staff here is playing a drama because they want to show everything is going smooth.”
These hospitals killed him,” says Madhu’s nephew trying to press his chest.
Madhu’s family asked the hospital to provide a document which states that he is dead but was denied by the hospital staff. They were only provided with a body bag to cover the dead body. After which they arranged the ambulance and took him back to the village.
“What is the use of these empty beds, when the patients are being denied admission” questions his nephew.
“Yogi and this government is fooling us,” he adds.
Musheera Ashraf is an independent journalist and researcher.
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