Pune: After seven-hour search for oxygen bed, 43-year-old woman dies
Nanda Binawat, wife of Anil Binawat who deals in real estate, had undergone a test for COVID-19 on Saturday. Around Sunday midnight, her condition suddenly deteriorated as she felt breathless.
Nanda Binawat's funeral was held two hours after her death. (Representational image)
A 43-year-old woman from Kondhwa died on Monday morning after her family’s efforts, for over seven hours, to find an oxygen bed in civic and private hospitals in Pune city proved futile.
The woman, Nanda Binawat, had been unwell for a few days and had undergone a Covid test on Saturday. Around 11 pm on Sunday, her condition suddenly deteriorated and she suffered from breathlessness. Nanda also suffered from diabetes and BP problems.
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Her husband Anil and son Rahul then drove around the city for the next four to five hours, looking for an oxygen bed.
“We went to at least five to six top hospitals in Pune city and even went to a prominent hospital Pimpri-Chinchwad. We made 10-20 calls from our cellphone to different hospitals but none of the hospitals were ready to admit my mother. The doctors in those hospitals told us that my mother’s oxygen level had dipped and she badly needed an oxygen or a ventilator bed,” Rahul Binawat told The Indian Express on Monday evening.
Rahul said they desperately pleaded with the hospitals to at least provide his mother basic treatment but the doctors said Nanda needed oxygen or ventilator support. “No hospital was ready to give her any kind of treatment,” he said.
After failing to find an oxygen bed in any of the hospitals, the family returned home around 4 am. “Then one of our close relatives, who works with a private hospital, asked us visit his hospital. However, they did not find a bed even there. The family then contacted the PMC war room and the officials asked her to take a Covid test again at Sassoon Hospital,” said Akash Kumbhar, her nephew.
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As the family was heading towards Sassoon Hospital, the woman fell unconscious. “The doctors at Sassoon examined her and declared her dead… The doctors said her oxygen level had dipped to 35 per cent,” said Kumbhar.
Nanda died at 7.30 am on Monday. She is survived by her husband and three children.
Nanda had developed fever on April 9. “My mother had slight fever till Friday… on Saturday, she was okay. But late on Sunday evening, she had breathing trouble, after which we started to search for the bed,” said Rahul.
Kumbhar said, “I had spoken to my aunt three-four days ago. She was sounding all right and had no fever or any other symptoms… I think if she had got an oxygen bed, she would have survived. Her death only highlights the pathetic medical and health system in our city.”
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Nanda’s test report was received around 8.30 pm on Monday, over 12 hours after her death. She had tested positive for Covid-19.
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
