Dilemma of the common man in emergency

LUCKNOW: An Agra couple, expecting their first child sometime this month, is running from pillar to post to get a Covid-19 test done, which has become a prerequisite for admission to almost any hospital in the state.

Father-to-be Bhuvnesh Tyagi, 28, is facing a dilemma: Take his wife for a Covid-19 test and risk an infection, or, risk a delivery at home. “Both options are fraught with danger. What do I do? Where do I take my wife for a Covid-19 test in this condition,” asked Tyagi.

On the suggestion of his wife, Bharti, 27, Tyagi took to social media to seek help. He reached out to Covid India Seva Twitter handle, a verified account but got no response.

Agra, the city of love and home to the Taj Mahal, has been the worst-affected Covid-19 district in Uttar Pradesh.

“During the initial phase of lockdown in April, when coronavirus cases were on the rise, six different hospitals near our house came in the hotspots zone. Private hospitals then started denying admission to emergency cases because of the Covid-19 scare,” Tyagi explained.

“I tried to contact the private nursing home where my wife was undergoing treatment. I was told that OPD is closed for a long time now. “Then I contacted the IMA Agra helpline number. A doctor attended to my call and asked me to get a Covid-19 test done 15 days prior to the expected date of delivery, from the district hospital or from an authorised private lab,” Tyagi said. “And then along with the reports I needed to get my wife admitted in any of the two hospitals recommended by the district administration. But the doctor did not clarify what should be done in case labour pains began before the test results came in,” he said. Considering the problem being faced by a large number of people, the Agra district administration instructed private hospitals to start treatment of emergency cases taking care of all protocols, he said.

Then Tyagi could contact his wife’s gynaecologist again, who made him understand the whole procedure and addressed all his queries.

The advice calmed Tyagi but even the Good Doctor hasn’t been able to dispel the nagging doubt in his mind: what if his wife tests Covid-19 negative but manages to contract the infection during her hospital stay ?

GOVT STIPULATIONS

According to fresh guidelines, no patient goes into a ward without getting screened first – especially in facilities falling in red zones.

DHEERAJ DHAWAN/HT A woman waits in an ambulance with her kin, a patient, while paper work is being completed by other relatives so that her kin’s screening for Covid-19 is done and then treatment by doctors is started, in Lucknow.