Four of the five patients who died of COVID-19 in Bhopal were survivors of the city’s 1984 gas tragedy, and were suffering from respiratory illnesses that made them more vulnerable to the disease.
One of the patients was denied ambulance service and admission by two private hospitals, another by one private hospital and the third by both a private and a government-run hospital. While two of them could be admitted to a private hospital at the last minute, one died on way to hospital.
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“If the BMHRC had been open for us, we could have gone there,” said Gaurav Khatik, son of the first patient to die of COVID-19 in Bhopal, aged 52, on April 6. He had managed to collect ₹90,000 with friends’ support for the brief treatment of his father, who was asthmatic, at a private hospital.
No option
After the State government converted the ICMR-run Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) into a dedicated COVID-19 hospital on March 23, the facility closed its doors to the survivors of the methyl isocyanate leak from a pesticide plant in the city in 1984, which killed thousands and caused deformities and congenital diseases in lakhs.
They are now left with no other government-run superspeciality hospital. Tens of patients, including 28 from the pulmonary ward, the most from any department, were shunted out.
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