Covid patient dies in Jhansi: The clip shows him struggling as he breathes.
A disturbing video - shot by a coronavirus patient at a top government hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi city - was widely shared on social media after his death on Monday as questions were raised yet again on the Yogi Adityanath government's claims about adequate facilities for COVID-19 patients at the state-run hospitals.
The 52-second video was shot by the patient admitted to the Covid ward of the Jhansi Medical College and Hospital on Monday. The clip shows him struggling as he breathes; his vest appears to be soaked in blood.
"There is no arrangement for water. I am feeling very hassled. Shift me to another hospital. There is no care here. There are no arrangements and there is total negligence," the man is heard saying. As he moves the camera to show the Covid ward, other patients can be seen lying on beds around him at the Jhansi hospital, about 300 km from state capital Lucknow.
The time gap between the shooting of the clip and his death is not yet clear. "His wife and daughter have also tested positive for coronavirus; they are admitted to another facility in Jhansi. They have no symptoms," GK Nigam, Jhansi's Chief Medical Officer, told the reporters on Monday evening.
The Chief Medical Officer, however, did not react to the allegations made in the clip. The video is the latest in a string of accusations of ill-treatment of Covid patients at state-run covid care centers in UP.
A 57-year-old coronavirus patient, who was caught on camera walking out of a state-run hospital in Prayagraj city just 24 hours after he was admitted to the facility, was found dead on Sunday evening. His body was found in bushes, just 500 metres away from the hospital.
His family has accused the hospital of "negligence", adding that he "escaped" after he faced harassment. The administration, however, has denied these claims.
He was admitted to Prayagraj's Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital on Friday evening with breathing issues.
An audio clip was released by his family as they claimed the patient had called them up on Saturday morning, hours before he "escaped" from the hospital, and reportedly said his complaints at the hospital went unheard.
"My mouth was dry all night. I felt suffocated, probably because of the ventilator. I tried to tell a few people here to help but no one listened," the man can be heard saying in the purported audio recording of his conversation with the family, which was released on Sunday.