Bengaluru, Apr 28: As many as 102 of the 1,437 Covid-19 patients who died between April 17 and 26 in Karnataka either passed away in their homes or were brought dead to hospitals.
While 75 patients died at home, 27 were pronounced dead on arrival in hospitals as per the daily bulletin issued by the health and family welfare department. This means at least 10 Covid-19 patients have died every day in the 10-day period without availing medical help.
Most of these fatalities were recorded in Bengaluru. Lack of beds, a long wait for test results and Bengaluru Urban numbers to secure admission in hospitals and ignoring symptoms until the last minute are some reasons for this grave situation. Health department officials also point to the absence of effective monitoring of people in home isolation.
In many cases, Covid tests are being conducted postmortem. On Monday alone, 21 Covid patients died at home, as per the bulletin.
The health department’s bulletin on Tuesday revealed four were brought dead to hospitals although no one died at home.
Soumya Reddy, Jayanagar (Bengaluru) MLA, alleged that the number of people dying at home due to Covid-19 complications is much higher than what is being revealed in the state government bulletin.
“We get numerous calls from patients’ families asking for beds and ventilators,” Reddy said. “In some cases, they return home after unsuccessfully trying for a bed and die at home. We recently came across one such case in Jayanagar, where a 35-yearold man died on April 20 after searching for a bed in a private hospital. He visited a local PHC too,” Reddy said.
The man’s family had sought the MLA’s help to transport the body to a crematorium. A Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) ambulance eventually arrived at the dead man’s home at 8pm on April 21 — almost 24 hours later. The family, which resides in JP Nagar First Phase, was unavailable for comment. The man’s death certificate states he was Covid-19 positive and died of cardiopulmonary arrest.
On April 22, a 17-year-old boy was brought dead to a hospital in Bengaluru. He had no comorbidities. The boy was diagnosed with influenza-like-illness and turned out to be Covid positive.
Dr Ravindra Mehta, pulmonologist and member of BBMP’s expert committee, said the increase in the number of people dying at home is expected, as the condition of a certain percentage of patients will deteriorate.
“Some patients recover with antiviral medicine while in other cases they recover with oxygen, anticoagulants and steroids,” said Dr Mehta. “Some patients will have complications related to comorbidities and cytokine storms. The deaths at home that we are seeing are of those not getting hospital beds because of the current surge.”
Dr Mehta went on to say that medical teams monitoring patients in home isolation must immediately ensure they are admitted to hospitals as soon as their conditions begin to deteriorate.
Gaurav Gupta, BBMP chief commissioner, said cases of death at home and brought dead to hospital are due to Covid-aggravated conditions and delayed detection. “They rush to hospitals at the last minute. Most of the tertiary hospitals in Karnataka are located in Bengaluru so patients from all over the state, who are in acute distress, come here,” Gupta said.
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