The son of a deceased elderly COVID-19 patient has alleged negligence by the Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) in Visakhapatnam, which ultimately led to his father being allegedly found dead in the hospital, four days after going missing. Srinivas has alleged that his father, Acchanna, who was undergoing treatment for COVID-19, was found dead in a store room at the hospital on August 9 after going missing on August 5.
Hospital authorities, however, have denied the allegations. The hospital claims that Acchanna was found by the staff on August 7, within hours of falling unconscious, and was treated in his bed before he died on August 9. VIMS is one of the state COVID Hospitals in Andhra Pradesh.
In a video addressing the media, Acchanna’s son Srinivas said that his father had been admitted to VIMS on August 1. “On August 5, he went missing. We went around with fear and anxiety but the doctors and nurses did not pay heed,” he alleged. Stating that the director of the hospital in particular was indifferent to his pleas for help, Srinivas said, “After going through so much anxiety, we thought we would find him alive, but we did not think the hospital would be so terrible.”
Srinivas said that in spite of approaching the hospital staff multiple times and telling them his father was missing, there was no response.
He said that after living a dignified life, his father had been abandoned in the store room for five days by the hospital staff and died from negligence. “They left him in the store room abandoned for five days… They said no one opens the store room, but they should have at least looked when a person went missing… No one should go through something so terrible,” Srinivas said, demanding justice for his family.
He asked Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao, who is from the north Andhra region, to suspend the director of VIMS, K Satyavara Prasad, saying he had no integrity.
Speaking to TNM, K Satyavara Prasad said that Acchanna had been found unconscious in a bathroom, and not deceased in a store room. He said that the patient was missing for 6 to 7 hours on the night of August 6. “It took about 6-7 hours of night time, since the nurses were busy. When they searched in the morning, he was found unconscious in the bathroom,” Satyavara Prasad said.
The hospital staff then tried to resuscitate him, but he remained in an unconscious state for two days till he passed away on August 9, the director claimed. “On August 6, when they (patient’s family) did not know the patient’s status, they searched and were not able to find [Acchanna]. Because the patient was unconscious, he was not able to answer their calls. Out of worry, without informing us, they went to the police saying the patient is missing. On August 9, the family was informed after the patient’s death,” he said.
When asked why the family was not informed sooner that the patient had been found alive, Prasad said, “The patient was unconscious; and we didn’t have communication [with his family].”
A week ago, Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao had visited VIMS hospital, and had admitted that there was a shortage of doctors, nurses and other paramedical staff. He had also reportedly received multiple complaints regarding the kin of deceased patients not being informed promptly about the patients’ death by hospital authorities.