"My family members and little children were there to see their grandfather when he was sick. Why would I put the health of my family at risk?” asks the 51-year-old son of the man from Kalaburagi in Karnataka, who died on March 10 and was later found to be positive for COVID-19. Speaking to TNM via telephone, the 76-year-old man’s son says he has a lot of unanswered questions about his father’s death and has demanded that the Karnataka Health Department clarify his doubts. The family has been accused by the Karnataka government of moving the patient to Hyderabad against their advice.
The 76-year-old man, with travel history to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, landed in the airport in Hyderabad on February 29. He returned to Kalaburagi on the same night. He fell sick on March 6 and was visited by a family physician. His health deteriorated on March 8 and on the morning of March 9, he was taken to Sunrise Hospital in Kalaburagi. Karnataka Health Department says they insisted that the patient's family took him to a hospital in Hyderabad and went against their advice to keep him at an isolation ward in Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences. However, the man's son says that none of the doctors informed him that his father could have contracted COVID-19.
“Since March 9, when my sister, brother-in-law and I took my father to Sunrise Hospital, no one said the word coronavirus. He already had health problems so we thought it was something related to that. It was only after we brought him back to Gulbarga (Kalaburagi) that I realised that he could have been infected. We did tell the doctors he had travelled to Saudi Arabia," says the son.
He is one of the 22 family members of the deceased man, who are currently lodged in one ward at the ESI Hospital in Kalaburagi. On Friday morning, officials with the Karnataka Health Department in Kalaburagi district contacted him and informed him that he and his family will be kept in isolation at the hospital for the next three days.
“At around 8 am yesterday (Friday), the officials came and moved us to the ESI Hospital. We have been here since then. They are giving us food and water but the place is very unhygienic and no one has come to clean the place since we moved here. The doctors said that cleaning staff are on strike for better pay. No one has cleaned the ward. The hospital is not hygienic,” the 76-year-old man’s son told TNM.
He says that he, his wife and two daughters aged 14 and 5 years along with 18 other family members have all been lodged in one ward, where each has been allotted a separate bed.
Several family members, who have been quarantined, say that the family is unable to bear the mental agony.
“The health department is helping us now. They are giving us food and water. But the place is dirty and unhygienic. There is a one-month-old baby here. We now have 10 children in this ward and they are all scared. If the hospital cannot maintain hygienic conditions, they should at least let us be in home isolation. They took our samples yesterday. Some of my relatives had a cold. Now they have been given medicine and are fine,” he added.
He says that the family went through a harrowing time in Hyderabad. The deceased patient’s son says that the Director of Sunrise Hospital insisted that his father be taken to a hospital in Hyderabad as soon as possible. “We went to four hospitals in Hyderabad first to Code Narrow Hospital. They asked us to go to Gandhi Hospital. We waited at Gandhi Hospital for a long time hoping someone will attend to our case but no one did. Then we took him to Apollo Hospital. They too asked us to go to Gandhi Hospital. Then we took him to the Care Hospital,” he said.
It was when he was in Care Hospital that the Karnataka government gave him a call, asking him to return to Kalaburagi.
When he returned on the night of March 10, he was declared brought dead at Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences, the son alleges.
“No one even spoke the word coronavirus to us until it was too late. Everyone kept saying my father’s condition is critical. If the doctors had explained to us what was happening, we would have taken him to GIMS at once. No one gave us this information. I found out that my father could have died because of coronavirus when I got a call on March 10. At this point, we were on our way to GIMS. The health officials said that he could have coronavirus. That was the first time someone mentioned it to me,” he said.
He further stated that after the burial, the officials had advised them to stay under home isolation. “Media says my father died of coronavirus. No one has given us a report or even told us what happened to my father. We only want some answers. I am asking the health department officials to understand our plight when we are grieving for my father. Please let us be under home quarantine since the hospital is not being cleaned. I don’t want to put the health of my other family members at risk,” he said.