Badangpet man, a non-COVID paitent dies waiting for ambulance

Hyderabad: A non-COVID patient died waiting for an ambulance in Telangana. Sixty-eight-year-old Haragopal was in a critical condition and had collapsed due to weakness. His family members contacted 104 but there was no response. Then they called 108, and the staff at the other end took the details and told them that they will contact them once an ambulance is free as all were engaged at that moment. With no other option left, the patient’s family contacted private ambulances even when many hung up saying they cannot provide the service.

“My uncle was diagnosed with typhoid and was having high fever. I contacted private hospitals for treatment and all of them cited the same reason that there are no beds available. So we contacted our family doctor and he agreed to attend to my uncle," said Sharvya.

“Even though my uncle tested negative for Covid-19, and we told the ambulance people about it, private ambulances too were not ready to come to us. It was almost 2 hours after his condition started deteriorating, minute by minute his pulse was falling down and he required oxygen immediately. We had no means to shift him to the hospital. Exactly, after 3 hours of our attempt to hire an ambulance, he died. The main reason why he died is we could not get an ambulance. I don’t know who should be blamed but had an ambulance helped us, he would have been alive,” said Shravya.

Many such cases of non-availability of ambulances, oxygen cylinders, beds, treatment and other essential services have been reported in the state.