COVID-19 patient's body dumped outside hospital by ambulance staff

This picture has been used for representation purpose

In a shocking incident, a COVID-19 patient's body was dumped outside a hospital in Bhopal on Monday. The CCTV footage showed two healthcare workers wearing PPE suit take the body out of the ambulance on a stretcher and leave in on the pavement, before driving away, said the NDTV report.

The patient, an employee at a power distributing company, was admitted at People's hospital in Bhopal two weeks ago with a kidney condition. In the past few days, he was having breathing issues and showed symptoms of pneumonia.

On Monday evening, he tested positive for coronavirus and was to be moved to Chirayu Hospital, one of the main centers treating COVID-19 patients in Bhopal.

The patient's son said his father had been unwell since January and was admitted to the hospital on June 23. He further stated that his father was alive on Monday morning when he was shifted in an ambulance to be taken to Chirayu Hospital.

"I don't know what happened in the ambulance, but why did the district administration had to shift him to Chirayu and send the ambulance if they were to dump him on the road like this?" the patient's son was quoted as saying by NDTV.

"An ambulance from Chirayu Medical College had reached, but after 30-40 minutes they informed us that they were coming back. By then we had sealed the ICU and started the process of fumigation as per protocol, and while the process was still on, the ambulance returned," Uday Shankar, hospital manager at People's Hospital, told NDTV.

According to reports, the ambulance staff asked the hospital for a stretcher, but by the time they could get a stretcher, the ambulance staff dumped the body on the road outside the hospital. When the hospital staff checked, the man was not breathing.

Ajay Goenka, director of Chirayu Hospital, said we had sent the ambulance with oxygen support and the patient was picked up. "However, midway the driver noticed the patient's condition is deteriorating and is critical. So after talking to the doctors at People's hospital, he turned back midway."

The collector of Bhopal has demanded an explanation from the People's hospital in the case.

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