A 55-year-old construction worker passed away outside a government hospital in Andhra Pradesh early Friday morning after hospital authorities allegedly denied entry to the patient and his family. Visuals of a woman and her pregnant daughter wailing beside the body of their dead husband and father under a tree at the government-run hospital in Anantapur town were shared widely following the incident.
The incident occurred at Anantapur government general hospital, which is a COVID-19 treatment facility. It was not immediately known whether Raju had tested positive for the coronavirus or not.
Raju's wife Kalavati and pregnant daughter brought him from Dharmavaram town to the hospital in Anantapur around 3 am. In the video, Kalavati can be seen holding up a ticket from the hospital as proof that she had brought her husband there at 3 am due to breathing difficulties. She narrates to a passerby that despite pleading to be admitted, the authorities would not allow them inside.
They were allegedly made to wait under a tree at the main entrance.
Kalavati and her daughter took turns to help Raju as well as go to the hospital staff and beg them to shift him to the ward, but they were asked to wait till 10 am. Though Kalavati said her husband would die by then, hospital authorities allegedly paid no heed. Around 8 am, Raju breathed his last.
The man succumbed in the hospital premises after battling breathing problems for nearly five hours. His wife and daughter pleaded with the hospital staff to admit him and supply oxygen. They allege that the apathy of authorities at the hospital led to his death.
As the visuals of the man and his family outside the hospital building were shared widely, few hospital employees in PPE kits shifted the body to the mortuary.
Hospital superintendent Dr Ramaswamy Naik, however, said Raju was brought to the hospital at the last minute. He said doctors informed him that he succumbed by the time they arranged for shifting him to the ward.
(With IANS iputs)
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