Eighteen-year-old Dheeraj Kumar has been shuttling between government hospitals in Noida and Greater Noida but has not been able to get medical care or a COVID-19 test done for his mother for five days.
Kumar, who lives in Hoshiyarpur in Sector 51 of Noida, said his mother Shakuntala Devi, 46, has kidney-stone and breathing problems and recently developed cough and swelling in her body.
They were told by a hospital to get a test done for COVID-19 test on June 3 but have been running from one government facility to another for it, he said.
He said he spoke to District Magistrate Suhas LY over the phone on Sunday morning and was assured by him that his mother would get treatment. In the evening, Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri also assured them of help.
Kumar, a Class 12 student, claimed he and his mother have been shuttling between the district hospital in Noida and the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) in Greater Noida during the day.
"But nothing has happened. We came to the district hospital around 1 pm and were sent to the GIMS. They told us they do not have any vacant bed so cannot admit my mother. Around evening, we got a bed here (district hospital) but medical staff again referred us to the GIMS citing lack of facilities here. We have been waiting for an ambulance since 7 pm. I tried 108 number also but it is not helping," he told PTI at 10.30pm.
The DM and the CMO did not respond to PTI's phone calls and text messages for their comments.
The incident comes close on heels of a 30-year-old woman, requiring urgent medical attention in the eighth month of her pregnancy, who on Friday night after shuttling around from one hospital to another with her husband in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad for 13 hours.
One after another, eight hospitals, including the government ones, in the two cities had allegedly turned away Khoda resident Neelam and her husband Vijender Kumar.
Kumar lives with his father, a private security guard who is off work due to an injury, mother and an elder sister. Two other elder sisters have got married, he said.
He said their ordeal at the three government hospitals began on June 3 and continued as he spoke on Sunday night.
"We first went to the ESIC hospital in Sector 24 on June 3. They sent us back with some medicines but the next day she was again in pain. We reached the hospital but were denied treatment and told to first get COVID-19 test done. They referred us to the District Hospital in Sector 30," he said.
"Next day we went to the District Hospital but they also referred us to the GIMS in Greater Noida. GIMS sent us back saying they do not have any vacant beds," he added.
Kumar said the other days he took his mother to hospitals on a friend's motorcycle but on Sunday the friend had to go to work, so he has been left at the mercy of an ambulance. "I thought I would take a cab but then some people at the hospital advised me against doing it," he added.
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