Bengaluru Techie Raghavendra Chavan was injured in an accident, but he lost his life as five city hospitals blatantly rejected treatment.
The ground reality of COVID-19 management in Bengaluru city is much worse than one might imagine. While the rising number of coronavirus cases have put the city population on edge, some shocking incidents of hospitals blatantly refusing to treat critical patients is a whole another concern.
Many have already lost their lives simply due to the oversight of city hospitals, that refuse to admit patients citing reasons like shortage of beds or COVID-19 status. "This might be the new norm for treating patients, but what about critical emergencies? Who is to be held accountable when a person is fighting for his life and has to go through a lengthy process of interrogation before even being attended to?" questions, Anup Patil, a friend of the deceased techie.
What happened with Raghavendra Chavan?
In this shocking incident in Bengaluru, 35-year-old Raghavendra met with an accident. When his friends rushed him from one hospital to another, the only consistent answer was "sorry".
He later succumbed to his injuries after five reputed hospitals refused to even administer even basic first-aid or inspect the injuries of the critical patient. As per the friends, "He was tossed around from one hospital to another, which worsened his chances of survival until he passed away. This is murder."
Another friend of the deceased, Dharnish Murthy wrote a public post narrating the incident. Full text here:
Hello all.
This is my friend.
He was more than a friend and more than brother to me.
Yesterday he met with an accident and he is no more now.
His death was not just by accident.
His death was because of negligence of hospitals and doctor's who wer not at the hospital when he needed the most.
He was letrally dieing but no doctors came to treat to him.
We had gone to 5 hospitals they did not even give him an first aid as well all they said was there is no bed and we can't treat him over hea so please take him to some other hospital. (I have seen it by myself there are bed but there is no doctors in hospitals to treat any kind of patients)
So where is this going now?
6th hospital was sparsh in rajkumar Road they finnaly toke him by saying that we can give only 10 to 20 percent of chances because he had an seviour head injuri and he was bleeding internally (they told us if he was treated properly when he was taken to the first hospital itself we could have saved him).
When we got it every hospital they had only one slogan (dose he have an travel history, dose he have an contact with the person who have COVID 19) but he dint have anything to do with COVID 19.
That's OK to check with that but it's not OK to not even giving an first aid or any kind of treatment when the patient is in a death bed.
So I think it might happen to your loved once someday so we don't have time to take chances.
This is now or never please do stand by and help us in justice. (sic).The hospitals are.
1. K.C general hospital.
2. Columbia Asia.
3. Nimhans hospital.
4. Basvangudi hospital.
5. Shirdi sai hospital.
Here's one reason why city hospitals refuse treatment: This article [click here] explains how the delay in "BU code" could be a reason behind hospitals refusing patients in Bengaluru. In a recent incident, a Bengaluru man succumbed to COVID-19 waiting for an ambulance his body was on road for 3 hours.
With Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa now throwing his arms in the air, many residents feel if the government doesn't get their act together and have humane protocols in place, many more could lose their lives owing to not just the negligence and lack of empathy by hospitals, but also because the government failed.
The version of the hospitals that allegedly refused treatment will be duly updated as and when they comment on the issue.