Doc who got Covid on duty dies after 3-month struggle

COULDN’T GET A BED IN HIS HOSPITAL AFTER CONTRACTING INFECTION AT WORK; UNDERWENT LUNG TRANSPLANT AND STAYED ON ECMO SUPPORT

NEW DELHI: A 39-year-old resident doctor of a Delhi government hospital who contracted Covid-19 during the second wave died on Saturday after being on ECMO support (similar to a heart-lung bypass machine) for nearly three months and undergoing a lung transplant earlier this month.

The doctor’s family had received ₹83 lakh for his treatment from the Delhi government upon the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission. The doctor, identified as Amit Gupta, was a senior resident with the department of paediatrics at Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital but couldn’t get a bed in the hospital after contracting the infection on duty. He was admitted to Maharaja Agrasen Hospital and then shifted to Gurugram’s Medanta Hospital when his condition deteriorated and was put on ventilator support.

Gupta was a contractual staff of the Delhi government, due to which they are not entitled to health care benefits on the lines of regular employees. “The Delhi government is paying an ex gratia of ₹1,00,00,000 to the next of kin of the corona warriors, but not taking care while they fell sick during the course of their public duties,” the NHRC had observed on May 19 on a complaint filed by Gupta’s family.

The NHRC had asked the Union health ministry as well as the Delhi government to offer adequate medical care and financial protection to contractual medical and paramedical staff.