Patient seeking admission faces harrowing time
LUCKNOW: Nirdesh Singh Tomar, 52, was rushed to Lucknow in an ambulance carrying an oxygen cylinder from Lakhimpur Kheri district early on Sunday after he complained of breathing trouble.
His friend Mayank and others followed in another fourwheeler. After running at breakneck speed for the next threeand-a half hours, the ambulance reached outside a prominent private hospital on Kanpur Road at around 4.30am.
Mandatory Covid-19 RT-PCR test was done by the hospital to check the patient’s status. All this was done with the patient still stranded in the ambulance.
Mayanak thought that Nirdesh’s plight was finally coming to an end. But it was the beginning of another round of trauma which seemed never ending as the search began for a bed at any hospital in Lucknow for the critically ill Nirdesh.
In the meantime, the oxygen level in the cylinder supporting Nirdesh neared the red mark, triggering panic. “All hospitals refused to replace the oxygen cylinder even after paying for the facility. After much effort, we were able to source one oxygen cylinder from a private supplier at Kanpur Road,” said Mayank.
“As the Covid-19 report came positive at around 8am, we thought that any hospital will now admit the patient. But this was not the case. All hospitals refused admission, citing Covid-19 protocol set by the state government,” said Mayank.
“All hospitals demanded admission slip issued by the Covid Command Centre. But all calls to this centre went unanswered,” said Mayank.
After more than 12 hours and making rounds of large number of hospitals, Mayank was able to get his friend admitted at a private hospital in Lucknow. But by then, patient’s conditioned worsened even on oxygen support. He was battling for life when reports were last received.