New Delhi: In a space of 12 hours, a man and a woman have died of swine flu in Delhi. Neither had any other serious medical condition. Doctors for both say they were admitted too late to be treated effectively.
Samrat Pandya, 32, a businessman from Gurgaon, was admitted to Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohiya hospital last Friday. Doctors put him on a ventilator immediately, and started him on Tamiflu. They say Pandya died of a cardiac arrest.
But Pandya's father lashes out at the hospital where his son died: "My son had fever, so I took him to the doctor and then I took him to Max Hospital. Then the next day, I brought him here. They are responsible for my son's death. The ventilators don't work."
The doctors, however, say the problem is that Samrat was already in critical condition when he was brought here.
Delhi's other swine flu victim, Ritu Gupta, had travelled recently to Singapore. The 38-year-old had shown symptoms of swine flu for five days.
At the same hospital, five other patients are in the screening ward, waiting to find out if they have swine flu.