At around 1 am on June 4, Inder Bajaj’s 49-year-old diabetic mother started feeling breathless and was afraid that she may have the coronav...
At around 1 am on June 4, Inder Bajaj’s 49-year-old diabetic mother started feeling breathless and was afraid that she may have the coronavirus. The young teacher, who lives in East Delhi, decided that it would be best to take his mother to a hospital. Over the next 13 hours, the family drove her to four hospitals around the capital – but all of them refused to admit her.
St Stephens Hospital said it did not have any empty beds. Lady Hardinge Hospital said they did not have sufficient oxygen supplies. Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital would not admit her without her Covid-19 test results stating that she was positive, said Bajaj. Even though his mother had been unwell for a few days, she had not been tested.
Finally, the family then took her to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. But there too, the authorities said that they did not have any beds available.
The family waited outside the hospital for hours hoping that a place would free up, before deciding to return home around 2.30 pm. In the end, said Bajaj, the hospital authorities sent his mother off with some medicines, claiming that she had pneumonia.
Other families across the Capital faced the same...
