Fever patient dies outside emergency unit of Meerut district hospital for want of stretcher

MEERUT: In the absence of a stretcher at PL Sharma district hospital due to the strike of paramedical staff, an 80-year-old man suffering from high fever died outside the emergency unit of the hospital on Tuesday. The family of Arshad Ali (80) had travelled all the way from Garh Mukteshwar to get him treated but had to return with Ali’s dead body.
Detailing, Khushnuma, daughter of deceased Arshad Ali, said, “He has been down with fever for 15 days now.We had showed him at hospitals in Garh but to no avail. Thinking he might get a better cure in Meerut we brought him here but doctors failed to attend to him.”
The family of Ali had travelled all the way from Garh to Meerut in a taxi but the wait for doctors lasted too long. Khushnuma said, “The taxi was waiting outside the emergency unit and I rushed inside to tell the doctors that he needed immediate attention. While we could not take him inside due to the unavailability of a stretcher, the doctors did not come outside even after 15 minutes of letting them know of his condition. My father breathed his last outside the emergency unit.”
Sources in Local Intelligence Unit confirmed the news but doctors denied haing any such information. “This case is not in my knowledge and due to the huge rush today many patients could not be catered to but any deaths are not in my knowledge,” said Dr. Sunil Gupta, chief medical superintendent, PL Sharma district hospital.