Three COVID-19 infected die in search of hospitals

Chitwan: Three coronavirus infected people who reached the government-operated Bharatpur Hospital in search of health facilities in the district died on Monday.

The district-based medical colleges and hospitals sent the infected to the public hospital in the critical stage citing lack of intensive care units and prompt need of PCR tests.

The patients died immediately after they were taken the public hospital. Information Officer of Bharatpur Hospital Leeladhar Poudel said all three deceased tested positive for the virus.

Their swabs were collected after they were pronounced dead, he shared. Acting medical superintendent of Bharatpur Hospital, Dr Jagannath Tiwari said all the deceased were diagnosed with severe type of pneumonia.

A 55-year-old woman of Khairahani municipality-13 who was taken to the Bharatpur Hospital at 7.00 am breathed her last at its emergency ward at 1.00 pm.

She was finally taken to Bhartpur Hospital after two medical colleges here had refused to admit her, said her relatives.

Likewise, another 65-year-old man of Bharatpur-11 was referred to the Bharatpur Hospital after his X-ray at Chitwan Hospital.

Tiwari said the man who was brought to Bharatpur Hospital emergency ward at 2.30 pm breathed his last at 3.00 pm.

“Chitwan Hospital had sent the patient to the public hospital for PCR test after undertaking x-ray. The patient died without much medical interventions”, he added.

In yet another incident, Narayani community hospital had sent a 18-year-old girl of Bharatpur-11 to the Bharatpur hospital for PCR test after carrying out all other lab tests.

She was brought here at 1.00 pm and declared dead after two hours, Tiwari informed.

He went on saying that the patient was sent to the public hospital after carrying out all medical tests including CT-Scan at the community hospital.

The Bharatpur-based medical colleges had returned the patient citing full occupancy of ICU wards. It may be noted that a patient died of coronavirus infection on Sunday evening as well for not being able to find a hospital for the treatment.

There are 19 hospitals in Chitwan, each having more than 50 beds, Tiwari said, adding the hospitals including two big medical colleges have possessed 176 ICU beds and 50 ventilators with 300 isolation beds.

The district has a total of 500 doctors, 1,500 nurse and 800 paramedics, still the human resource is not adequate to provide treatment service for complicated diseases, he shared.

At least 200 ICUs and 80 ventilators are minimum requirement of Chitwan, he added.