Pandemic spells death sentence for India's
non-virus patients
April 12, 2020
NEW DELHI, India — Liver patient Shahjahan's family feared the
worst when a New Delhi public hospital told her to leave because her bed was
needed in a coronavirus unit.
The 40-year-old mother had been on a ventilator with an acute
infection for almost two weeks when she left Lok Nayak hospital on Tuesday
night.
She died at her family home in Delhi the next morning. Other
hospitals had turned her away because of the pandemic.
"The authorities just left her to die. Even when they
referred us to another hospital, they refused to give us an ambulance,"
said Mohammad Khalid, a relative of Shahjahan.
The capacity of medical facilities around the world has been
stretched by the surge of COVID-19 patients as outbreaks worsen in many
countries.
It can cause people with other life-threatening diseases to miss
out on vital care — especially in places like India, where healthcare systems
are shakier.
Dozens of people with serious medical conditions are camped
outside India's national medical institute in tents set up by the Delhi
government.
Many of them had travelled from other cities for now-cancelled
appointments and can't go back due to transport restrictions under the nationwide
lockdown that began on March 25.
Outpatient departments at the All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS) closed, forcing cancer patients and others with deadly
ailments to take shelter in a grimy pedestrian subway and under canvas.
Though aid groups have provided some food and medicines, it had
been 12 hours since Saryu Das had eaten when AFP met him.
Subway death
His son, who had mouth cancer, lay on a thin mattress with his
face covered by a scarf. Flies hovered around him. Four days later, he died.
Waste littered the subway floor that is now home to more than 10
families unable to get back to their hometowns, with the mattresses so close
that social distancing was impossible.
The AIIMS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on
the death and the patients outside. But hospitals across the vast country of
1.3 billion people have been put on alert and its virus death toll is now above
280.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown, he
gave millions of Indians taking life-saving drugs only four hours' notice.
Amulya Nidhi, a health activist based in Madhya Pradesh state,
told AFP the government knew that vulnerable patients -– including those with
silicosis and tuberculosis, which kills tens of thousands each year in India,
as well as pregnant women -- were at risk.
"I'm getting distress calls from across India over access
to basic medicines and treatment," said Nidhi.
Shut out
"It is important to expand healthcare facilities to fight
COVID-19. At the same time, hospitals and ambulances have to be available for
patients with other problems," he said.
In February, 39-year-old Maitri Lakra was found to be in the
initial stages of tongue cancer. Being HIV-positive only added to her woes.
Doctors at AIIMS referred her to their campus in Haryana state
for pre-surgery tests, which started mid-March. But 10 days later, she was told
that all radiology appointments were postponed.
As her condition deteriorated — bleeding from the tongue and in
unbearable pain — she filed a petition with the Delhi High Court and has
finally been admitted to AIIMS.
"Her cancer is at stage three now. Had she received
treatment on time, this would not have happened," her son Debashish Dag
said.
Vinay Shetty, from the Mumbai-based Think Foundation that works
with people with the blood disease thalassaemia and organises blood donation
camps, said those needing transfusions are among the most vulnerable.
"Those needing drugs may not have a problem, but anybody
needing blood will," Shetty said, adding the government had to encourage
blood donors.
Public health expert Anant Bhan said India's focus on COVID-19
could lead to other diseases such as tuberculosis spreading.
"Family members in lockdown with tuberculosis patients are
at risk. After the lockdown is removed and people start social interactions, it
could spread the infection the same way COVID-19 patients could spread
infection," Bhan said.
"Deaths because of COVID-19 and not directly of it is something
that we need to worry about. We need to ensure those who need essential
services have it," he said.
And time is already running out for Shahjahan's fellow patients
in the subway and tents outside AIIMS.
"The doctors told me they could not do my chemotherapy
session now and that they'll call me when the lockdown is lifted. That call may
take weeks," said 25-year old Rampur resident Mohammed Shan-e-Alam.
"Now I can't go home and I can't go to the hospital."
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