A day after a 28-year-old excise official from Kerala died, his kin have come forward alleging that the hospital was negligent towards him.
Sunil Kumar, an excise department driver from Mattanur in Kannur, who had tested positive for coronavirus, passed away on Thursday. He was in the isolation ward at the Pariyaram Government Medical College hospital in Kannur and had no comorbidities. The excise officer’s sudden demise has prompted the health department to investigate the reasons for his death.
It is at this juncture that his kin have released an audio clip of a phone conversation with the patient, where Sunil Kumar is heard telling a relative that he is feeling breathless and asking for help.
“I am not able to breathe. Nobody is understanding the seriousness of this. The nurses are not doing anything, ask them to come fast,” the voice in the audio recording is heard saying.
The clip was aired on Malayalam news channels, after the family released it.
The patient was admitted to the Pariyaram Medical College hospital on Sunday with pneumonia and breathing difficulties. He was placed on ventilator support, Principal of the Medical College hospital confirmed to Asianet News.
On Tuesday, his samples tested positive for coronavirus and he passed away two days later on Thursday. The 28-year-old native of Belathur who had high fever had visited a private hospital first and was later referred to the Medical College as he exhibited symptoms of COVID-19.
Investigations into his death are ongoing even as authorities of the Medical College have denied allegations of medical negligence raised by Sunil’s relatives.
Meanwhile, the source of infection for both Sunil Kumar and a 14-year-old boy from Kannur town remains a mystery. The 14-year-old tested positive for the virus on Wednesday after he was referred to Kannur Medical College hospital from another private hospital where he was being treated for high fever.
With this, Kannur and Payyambalam which consist of three divisions of the Kannur Corporation have been placed on a lockdown since Thursday, as authorities are scrambling to trace contacts of the patients as well as the source of their infection. The two areas are now containment zones.