In an attempt to get her Covid-19 positive husband at a private hospital, a woman from Bhagalpur in Bihar has accused a staff member of sexual harassment and doctors at the hospital. She has also two others in Mayaganj and Patna of neglect that caused his death.
Making a video request of 12-minute, the woman claimed that doctors and staff of all the three hospitals declined to attend her husband, even to change his dirty and stained bedsheets.
She has also blamed the staff of Bhagalpur's Glocal Hospital, where her husband was first admitted of wasting half of the flask of Remdesivir. Remdesivir is an antiviral drug that is very expensive and difficult to get, which is used in the treatment of Coronavirus.
"My husband and I stay in Noida. We came to Bihar for Holi... it was a family get-together. On April 9, he fell ill... had a high fever. We tested for coronavirus twice, but it was negative. While we were waiting for RT-PCR test results, a Noida doctor told us to get a chest CT," she said.
"We admitted them - my mother was also unwell - to the ICU... but there was so much negligence. Doctors used to come and go in minutes... attendants were missing and refused to give the medicines,” she said.
She adds that her mother was in better condition but after a certain point, her husband’s condition deteriorated and he couldn’t speak. He would show a signal for water but nobody gave him any, she mentions.
"There was one man - Jyoti Kumar. He was an attendant at Glocal Hospital. I requested him to help... to give my husband clean bedsheets. He said he would help but when I was talking to my husband, my dupatta was yanked from behind. I turned around... he was smiling with his hand on my waist. I snatched the dupatta back... but couldn't say anything because I was afraid. 'My husband is here, my mother is here,' I thought, 'If I say anything, they will do something to them."
After local government officials visited the hospital to inquire into these allegations, the Glocal hospital stated that the accused employee has been suspended and an inquiry committee has been formed. Further, the hospital said that during the preliminary inquiry no evidence has been found in support of the accusation, but it said that if the charges were proven to be true then definite action will be taken against the guilty.
The hospital has also requested a written complaint and asked the woman to appear before its inquiry committee.
The woman who appeared before the inquiry committee could barely stop her tears and anger at the incident that happened to her and her family. She spoke of even more offensive experiences she had gone through in Mayaganj and Patna, where her husband was referred to for further treatment.
Doctors on the night shift at the Bhagalpur Government Hospital in Mayaganj denied attending her husband and they even refused to give him oxygen despite she kept requesting them, desperately.
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While in Patna’s Rajeshwar Hospital she accused staff of carelessness even as his oxygen levels fell alarmingly low. And after that stabilised they cut his supply and she was forced to purchase cylinders from the black market, she said.
The second wave of covid-19 has exposed not only the selfless side of humans but shown how humans can stoop down low in such times of despair. From charging huge sums for treatment, beds and black marketing of oxygen and drugs to the negligence leading to the killing of patients.
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Just like all states, Bihar has been severely affected by the coronavirus second wave. According to the official data, the state has reported more than 10,000 cases and 75 deaths in the last 24 hours, while the active covid tally in the state is over one lakh.