65-year-old requiring ‘intensive care’ dies at Bandipora hospital

A 65-year-old man with multiple underlying conditions requiring “intensive care” died at District Hospital Bandipora on Thursday night within 30 hours of his admission, officials said Friday.

Medical Superintendent D H Bandipora, Dr Bashir Ahmad Teli said that the 65-year-old man had been admitted to the hospital on Wednesday.

   

The hospital has been designated as a COVID facility for critically ill and symptomatic patients of the district.

Dr Parvaiz Sajjad, who was treating the patient, said, “The man died within 30-hours of his admission at the hospital on Thursday night and was in a deteriorated condition.”

He said that the patient had multiple underlying conditions from diabetes and hypertension to severe bilateral COVID pneumonia and acute renal failure.

Reports said that the patient was forced to get treatment at the district hospital as the tertiary care hospital at Srinagar had no ICU beds available.

As per a senior medico in the hospital administration, the family had told them that they had been directed to move to the district hospital from Srinagar because of unavailability of the ICU beds.

According to officials at the hospital, “The ICU and ventilators are not up to the mark as the hospital is lacking manpower of technicians and specialists to operate them. Though there are ICUs and ventilators but it is not a proper ICU setup and doesn’t make it up to the mark to cater to critically-ill patients.”

The doctors said that the patient was given whatever facility was available at District Hospital  Bandipora.

Meanwhile, locals said that the oxygen plant, which was said to have been made functional, was not in use and the installation was only completed following the death of the patient on Friday.

However, the Medical Superintendent Bashir Ahmad Teli said that the oxygen plant was functional for the last two days.

The latest COVID-19 death is the first case where it happened in the facility within the district.

With three deaths during the second COVID-19 wave, the death toll in the district has risen to 66.

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