Noida: Pregnant woman dies in ambulance after running between hospitals for 13 hrs

Noida: In a tragic incident, an eight-month pregnant woman, who was showing Covid symptoms died in the ambulance after she was turned away from as many as six hospitals including government ones for lack of beds as she had to undergo a Covid test.

Victim's family have alleged that her husband and brother-in-law kept on wandering between hospitals for 13 hours, keeping the patient along with them in auto and later in a private ambulance, as all the hospitals denied for treatment because of lack of beds. Taking cognisance, the district magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar has ordered a probe into the matter.

As per reports, the woman, identified as Neelam, a resident of Khoda area in Ghaziabad, was eight months pregnant and undergoing treatment at Shivalik Hospital, a private hospital. On Friday morning around 6 am, the hospital refused to admit her after she showed Covid symptoms and the family was forced to run from one facility to another.

"We first took her to ESIC hospital in Noida after she was feeling breathless and had fever but was referred to the district hospital in sector 30 of Noida where hospital staffers told us that since she had come from Khoda area, she should be taken to a hospital in Ghaziabad," said one of her family members.

"We took her back to the Shivalik hospital from where an ambulance took her to Fortis hospital which apparently refused saying lack of beds and vacant ventilators. She was then taken to the Jaypee hospital from where they referred her to Government Institute of Medical Science (GIMS). However, she was taken to the Sharda hospital from where doctors referred her to GIMS as her condition was serious and had to go a Covid test first but the hospital again refused saying that they do not have enough beds," victim's family member added.

Lost all their hopes, the family took her to Max hospital in Vaishali where she was again not admitted and was again taken back to GIMS. However, she expired in ambulance around 7:30 pm.

Following, the incident, the Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Suhas L Y ordered a probe into the episode. The probe will be headed by Additional DM Munindra Nath Upadhyay and Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri to head the probe.

This is at least the second instance within a fortnight when a life has been lost in Gautam Buddh Nagar due to unavailability of timely medical treatment.

On the night of May 25, a newborn child had

died due to lack of medical support as his father kept running from one hospital to another between Greater Noida and Noida.

The district administration had carried out a probe in that matter too and pinned the fault on two private hospitals for alleged negligence.