COVID patient in Bengaluru dies waiting on road, ambulance comes 2 hrs later

In a heart-wrenching incident, a 65-year-old COVID-19 patient at Hanumath Nagar of South Bengaluru died on the road outside his house waiting for the ambulance on Friday (July 3) evening.

In a video, which has gone viral on social media, the patient’s relatives can be seen standing near his body waiting for the hearse van.

Quoting his wife, an NDTV report said, the man had been facing breathing problems and was getting treated at home.

But his condition worsened after his report came positive on Friday. He then immediately informed his wife and requested for an ambulance.

His family decided to take him to the hospital when the ambulance didn’t reach on time, but he collapsed on the road. The ambulance reportedly reached two hours later.

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Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), however, claimed that the patient was on his way to board the ambulance and had asked it to be parked some distance away from his house to avoid drawing the attention of neighbours to his condition.

“A BBMP ambulance went to pick him near his house and called him around 5.15 pm. He didn’t want the ambulance to go near his house and wanted to walk to the main road. He collapsed, perhaps following a massive heart attack,” Times of India quoted a BBMP official as saying.

The neighbours, however told TOI, that no ambulance came to pick up the man.

“His family members were struggling to mobilise and ambulance from the morning and they stepped out to get at least an autorickshaw. He began walking towards the main road when he collapsed and died. The BBMP ambulance came only at around 7pm,” TOI quoted a neighbour as saying.

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Taking note of the matter, R Ashok, the minister in charge of the coronavirus crisis in the state has said that strict action will be taken against those responsible. BBMP commissioner Anil Kumar has also said that a probe will be ordered in the case to avoid any such recurrence.

Karnataka has recorded 19,710 cases so far, with Bengaluru seeing a continuous spike in infections.