Relatives of a seventy-year-old female cardiac patient alleged that she was suffering heavily due to improper case management by the authorities of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The mismanagement stems from the doctors concerned suspecting her of being coronavirus infected, the relatives said.
While the grandson of the patient was talking to this reporter, the patient was standing at the gate of Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital as the authorities had denied her treatment.
The authorities of DMCH sent the patient to Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital as she has a cough and her son had returned home from abroad around 20 to 25 days ago.
The elderly woman was earlier kept in a four-bed temporary isolation ward of DMCH.
Resident Medical Officer Dr Alauddin said they had to send her under the supervision of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) as DMCH does not have the necessary equipment to test for Covid-19 infection.
However, according to IEDCR, all hospitals should have an isolation ward for such patients by now, and IEDCR officials would go there to collect samples for testing.
No Covid-19 suspected patients should be sent to IEDCR or hospitals designated to treat such patients. The patients should be isolated and then tested on-site.
The patient's grandson said she was admitted to the Coronary Care Unit when she was taken to DMCH from Comilla. The local physician who treated her earlier said that she had cold related issues, cardiac problems and lung infections.
However, in a shocking turn of events, when a duty-doctor noted her grandmother coughing and learned from the attendants that her son came from Dubai some 25 days back, the medical officer immediately described the patient as coronavirus infected.
"From there, we firstly went to Kurmitola General Hospital, where the on-duty doctor said she has a serious cardiac problem and asked to take her to the National Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (NIDCH). Upon arriving there, we were advised to return to DMCH as they don’t have any beds left,” the grandson said.
After returning to DMCH, the patient was sent to Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital, where they declined to admit or treat her.
The grandson further said all the running back and forth caused his grandmother's condition to get worse.
The director of DMCH could not be reached by phone for comment. Meanwhile, IEDCR Director Meerjadi Sabrina Flora said she was not aware of the incident, however she would come back after talking to her team.
She added that the standard procedure was to inform them about any suspected case for further steps.
Kamrul Hasan also contributed to this report