No ventilator bed, no ambulance: Covid patient dies at home, body carried to crematorium on hand cart

Zilla Parishad orders probe on how patient went back home from Covid care centre

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The incident came to light on Friday after a video -- showing four persons wearing PPE suits and taking the body on a hand cart through the village– went viral. (Express photo)

The body of a 40-year-old Covid-19 patient, who failed to get a ventilator bed in any hospital and eventually died at home, was taken to the crematorium on a hand cart due to the alleged unavailability of a hearse van or ambulance.

The incident took place at Khanapur village, about 20 km from Pune city, on Wednesday. The incident came to light on Friday after a video — showing four persons wearing PPE suits and taking the body on a hand cart through the village– went viral.

The man, who was a fish vendor, and his brother had tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday morning, Nilesh Jawalkar, sarpanch of Khanapur village, told The Indian Express on Friday. “… They went to a private hospital at Narhe, around 2 km from Khanapur. The hospital asked them to deposit Rs 40,000 as advance charge. They called me up and other villagers… we arranged the money and went to the hospital. However, by that time, the hospital said there was no ventilator bed available…,” said Jawalkar.

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The sarpanch said he then contacted officials of Zilla Parishad and local primary health centres, who also conveyed their inability to find a ventilator bed. “We contacted several private hospitals, all of them said no ventilator bed was available. The patient was feeling uneasy and had breathing problems…” said Jawalkar.

The brothers had no choice but to return home, claimed the sarpanch. “… They stayed inside their house, which is a small hut,” he said.

Around 11.30 pm on Wednesday, the man was found dead inside his hut.

The sarpanch said he and the other villagers again called up ZP officials, including the taluka health officer, and even private hospitals, seeking a hearse van to carry the patient’s body to the crematorium. “But we failed to get either a hearse van or an ambulance. Everyone said there were no such vehicles available,” he said.

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Jawalkar said the villagers finally decided to carry the body on a hand cart. The sarpanch, a police patil, a doctor from the local public healthcare centre and a local youth donned PPE kits and carried the body to the crematorium. “While we got the PPE kits from the health centre, we only managed to get a plastic bag from Haveli police station to wrap the body. The police told us that the bag was donated to them by a voluntary organisation,” said Jawalkar.

When contacted, taluka health officer Sachin Kharat said the 40-year-old man was first admitted to a Covid care centre, which was close to a private hospital. “The man had breathing trouble. He then taken to a nearby private hospital, where the doctors said he needed a ventilator and they had no ventilator. I had directed our medical officer to tell the hospital to put the patient on oxygen till they find a ventilator bed. However, the patient and his brother went back home,” said Kharat.

Asked how the patient could go back home from a Covid care centre, Kharat said, “We are trying to find out what exactly happened.”

He added, “It is the responsibility of the gram panchayat to make proper arrangements for a patient’s last rites. I have no idea why they carried his body on a hand cart.”

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ZP Medical Officer Vandana Gawli said, “The patient’s swab was taken on Monday morning. The patient’s oxygen saturation level had dipped below 90. We put him on emergency oxygen system available at our swab test centre. Later, we sent him to a private hospital located close to our swab centre. The patient called me at 8 pm and told me that the hospital had asked him to look for a ventilator bed…I have no clue why the patient went home after that.”

Pune Zilla Parishad CEO Ayush Prasad said, “We have launched a probe to find out why the patient went home. There are two theories floating around. One is that the Navale hospital had demanded a deposit amount. But when we inquired with the private hospital, authorties said they didn’t demand any money. The hospital told us that the patients fled the hospital premises… Our health team had dropped the patients till the gate of the hospital. We are now trying to find out why and how the patient went home as we had enough beds at our CCC…”.

Prasad said the hand cart was apparently used by villagers as the crematorium was located at a short distance. “Besides, there are narrow alleys in the village, where it is difficult for a hearse van or ambulance to pass through,” he said.

The man is survived by his wife and two children. Zilla Parishad officials got his brother admitted to the jumbo hospital in Nehrunagar on Wednesday.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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