Pregnant Woman With Suspected COVID-19 Symptoms Turned Away By 8 Hospitals, Dies In Ambulance

In a shocking case of medical negligence, an 8 months pregnant woman from Noida, lost her life after she was denied admission by eight hospitals. According to her family, Neelum and her husband Vijender Singh tried to get her admitted to a hospital for 13 hours, going from one medical facility to another, only to be turned away.

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Neelum was undergoing treatment for pregnancy-related complications at the Shivalik Hospital in Noida and on Friday, the hospital refused to admit her, after she reportedly showed COVID-19 symptoms and then they were forced to run from one facility to another.

The family had tried to get her admitted at the Jaypee Hospital and Fortis Hospital in Gautam Buddh Nagar and the Max Hospital in Vaishali, Ghaziabad, only to be allegedly told that no beds were available. In a video circulating on social media, Neelam¡¯s husband Vijender Singh said he had pleaded at the doors of eight hospitals, including government-run ones before his wife died.

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¡°First, we went to the ESI Hospital then to another in Sector 30 (the Child PGI); from there we went to Sharda Hospital and then to the Government Institute of Medical Sciences in Greater Noida. But all of them refused to admit her,¡± her husband alleged. "Kul mila ke humari ambulance mein hi death ho gayi (ultimately, she died in the ambulance). Finally, we got to the GIMS where she was put on a ventilator but it was too late," he said.

After the husband's video went viral Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas L Y ordered a probe into the episode. "Additional DM Munindra Nath Upadhyay and Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri will probe the matter. The DM has instructed them to immediately carry out a probe and take action," an official statement said.

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This is at least the second instance within a fortnight when a life has been lost in Gautam Buddh Nagar due to the unavailability of timely medical treatment. On the night of May 25, a newborn child had died due to a lack of medical support as his father kept running from one hospital to another between Greater Noida and Noida.

The district administration had carried out a probe in that matter too and pinned the fault on two private hospitals for alleged negligence.

This comes at a time when hospitals across the country are struggling with the ever-increasing number of COVID-19 patients, which is likely to worsen in the coming days.