Prakash Kumar*, a 51-year-old businessman had been feeling feverish. He had also been relentlessly coughing. He had hoped that it was just a seasonal flu. Soon after, he began to feel breathless and uneasy. When he got his oxygen saturation levels checked, they were lower than the recommended range. In panic, his family decided to get him admitted. They had not imagined that it would be followed by a long search for a hospital bed. From one hospital to another, father and son roamed across Hyderabad, in search of a bed in a hospital.
They first went to Sunshine hospital where they were made to wait for 4 hours, they then went to Medicover Hospital where they were made to wait for 3 hours. The search didn’t end there, as they couldn’t get a bed despite waiting, they knocked on the doors of Yashoda Hospital, KIMs and then ended up at the Zoi Hospital. At all the hospitals, they had been shunned with the excuse that beds weren’t available.
On July 6, Kumar was admitted to the Zoi Hospital in Hyderabad. On July 8, his swab test was collected in the hospital and sent to Vijaya Diagnostics for COVID-19 testing. Next day, on July 9, when the results came, they were relieved that he had tested negative for Coronavirus. However, the cough, the fever and the breathlessness continued.
The COVID test result the family received on July 9
Even a week after he was admitted again, when he didn’t get any better, the family requested the hospital to prescribe Ramdesvir, hoping that the much-talked about drug would make Kumar feel more comfortable. However, the doctors said as he had tested negative, they wouldn't be able to prescribe the drugs used for COVID-19 treatment.
For the next 10 days, Kumar battled in the hospital. His son was allowed to meet him a few times and throughout, the family believed that he would be back home sooner rather than later.
On July 17, the hospital took the family’s consent to put Kumar on a ventilator. Later in the evening, he was declared dead. Little did the family know that on July 7, when Kumar had walked into the hospital, that he would never return home again.
Around a month later, on August 7, when the family was still trying to come to terms with their loss, Kumar’s son received a COVID-19 report on his phone. It was his father’s. The report had the same date mentioned on which the sample was collected. The name of the diagnostic centre where the sample was earlier tested also matched with the name of the diagnostic centre on the new report. According to the COVID-19 interim test report, which had the government of Telangana mentioned on the top, Kumar’s Nasopharyngeal swab test had tested positive for Coronavirus. The report also revealed that the sample collected on July 8, was tested only on July 31 and the report was received on August 7, around a month after the swab test was taken.
The COVID test result that the family received on August 7
The family felt that had the initial report accurately detected that Kumar was actually COVID-19 positive, the hospital authorities could have saved him. Speaking to TNM, Pratibha Jhawar, a crusader volunteering to bridge the gap between plasma donors and plasma receivers, who brought this case to light said, “The family was heartbroken. They felt their loved one could have been administered the right treatment had the report been right. They were shocked and pained that a month after he was reported to be negative, he was later told to be positive. This incident should help highlight the fault in the system. No one else should lose a loved one like this.”
When asked whether the family plans take legal action, Pratibha said, “The family is already struggling to accept the personal loss to the family. They had spent a lot of money hoping to save Kumar. They don’t have the energy and the financial ability to take this up legally.”
*Name changed on request