Mumbai: COVID positive 60-year-old woman made to wait 4 hrs outside BKC centre

Kalpana Sankpal in the auto-rickshaw outside the BKC Jumbo COVID centre on Friday

Getting admitted for COVID treatment turned out to be a harrowing experience for a family which approached the BKC Jumbo COVID Centre on Friday. Santacruz resident Kalpana Sankpal, 60, tested positive for an advanced stage of COVID. What followed next was a nearly four-hour wait in the rickshaw, parked under the hot sun outside the COVID centre. Kalpana was finally admitted around 4 pm after the local corporator intervened.

Dr Vasant Shenoy, who diagnosed the ailment, said that Kalpana had visited his clinic around 11 am on Friday morning, complaining of fever and diarrhoea for the past two days.

"Considering her medical history of severe diabetes with hypertension and morbid obesity, I immediately checked her oxygen levels and found her SpO2 (oxygen saturation) to be 81 per cent, which is nearly 18 points less than the normal count and put her in a very high-risk category. A lab test confirmed that COVID Severity Score on HRCT scan was 23 out of 25, which confirmed that her lungs were barely functioning. This is when I advised her to get admitted immediately to the BKC COVID centre," Dr Shenoy said. mid-day has a copy of Kalpana's HRCT report.

Kalpana's 64-year-old husband Vijay alleged that she was denied admission or any emergency treatment and instead told to return home and apply online for a bed. "We were told that as and when a bed is available, an ambulance would be sent to fetch the patient, but the indefinite wait was not acceptable because of her condition, and my wife had to sit in the rickshaw for hours under the hot sun," Vijay said. The family paid the auto driver, who waited with them patiently, R600. mid-day reached out to H West ward's Medical Officer Sanjay Funde, who asked for the full details to be sent to him via SMS, to which he did not respond.

Dr Rajesh Dere, dean of the BKC Jumbo COVID Centre confirmed that the patient had been finally admitted and said that he would look into the long waiting period.

Corporator Hetal Gala, who helped the family get the emergency bed, said that she had responded to the SOS call from Dr Shenoy. "In view of the current situation, I have written to the BMC commissioner to reopen the BCJ Hospital aka Asha Parekh hospital, which downed its shutters in 2017. It had a capacity of 110 beds. It can be used as a COVID centre to ease the pressure on other centres. Let's hope Kalpana recovers soon and returns home," Gala said.