A 26-year-old man from Hyderabad sent a selfie video from the hospital bed to his father minutes before he succumbed to Covid-19, stating that he was feeling breathless as the doctors had allegedly removed the ventilator support.
The incident, which happened on Friday night, came to light on Sunday after the video was widely shared on social media.
“They have removed ventilator and have not been responding to my plea for the last three hours to provide oxygen support. My heart has stopped and only lungs are working, but I am unable to breathe, daddy. Bye daddy. Bye all, bye daddy,” the man said in the short selfie video, which he had sent to his father from the bed of Government Chest Hospital, Erragadda in Hyderabad.
His father said his son died minutes after sending the video. His last rites were performed on Saturday. “My son was suffering from high fever on June 24. After trying for admission in a few hospitals, he was finally admitted to the Chest Hospital on June 24, where he succumbed on June 26,” the father, who hails from Jawaharnagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad said.
Chest hospital superintendent Mahboob Khan, however, denied the allegation that the ventilator was removed.
“The ventilator support was very much there, but the patient was in such a critical stage that he could not feel the oxygen supply,” he said.
Khan said the young man had died of sudden collapse of heart. “We have come across such cases in the last few days. Usually, aged people die because of the collapse of the lungs infected by Covid-19. We are seeing a new phenomenon of people in the age group of 25-40 years succumbing because of viral infection in the heart. They will be provided oxygen but, they feel it insufficient,” he said.
He said the doctors had done their best to save the man, but he was already in a critical condition at the time of admission. “There was no fault of doctors at all,” the hospital superintendent said.
