Kashmir's 100th COVID death puts administration in dock

Abrar Reyaz's death in Chest Disease Hospital in Srinagar due to coronavirus on Tuesday has put the administration in dock and raised questions over the treatment of trauma patients who turn out COVID-19 positive in hospitals.

Srinagar: The death of the 24-year-old law student from Kashmir's Shopian in Chest Disease Hospital in Srinagar due to coronavirus on Tuesday has put the administration in dock and raised questions over the treatment of trauma patients who turn out COVID-19 positive in hospitals.

A 24-year-old youth, Abrar Reyaz, from Shopian, who was studying law at Central University of Kashmir had met with a road accident in Pampore on Saturday last week. In this accident, his uncle had passed away while on way to hospital and his father having fatal injuries is battling for his life in Srinagar's SMHS hospital.

The youth was rushed to SMHS hospital on Saturday where he was treated in the Intensive Care Unit. As per doctors in SHMS, he turned out COVID-19 positive while in ICU and was shifted to Chest Disease (CD) hospital where he succumbed on Tuesday afternoon.

His death is the 100th death attributed by doctors to the novel coronavirus which had gripped the world and exposed the health infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Lieutenant Governor administration has designated nearly ten hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir as COVID-19 health facilities after the deadly pandemic struck the union territory.

CD hospital and SKIMS Bemina in Srinagar are among other hospitals in J&K which are designated as COVID-19 health centers where COVID patients are exclusively treated by doctors following SOPs. The only tertiary hospital in Kashmir, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (Soura) which is treating both COVID and non-Covid patients.

Relatives and friends of the 24-year old youth have raised questions over the treatment of this trauma patient in CD hospital.

Habeel Iqbal, a lawyer in Shopian, alleged that the 24-year-old Abrar Reyaz could not get a ventilator at SKIMS.

“Heartbroken. Abrar is no more! Unfortunate that he couldn’t get a ventilator at SKIMS & had to be kept in CD Hospital, which doesn’t have the speciality to deal with such cases,” he tweeted.

A senior doctor in Srinagar corroborated what Iqbal pointed out. The doctor told ETV Bharat on condition of anonymity that CD hospital does not have a full-fledged Intensive Care Unit where trauma and critical patients can be treated.

“Shifting critical-care patients to CD Hospital is proving fatal as it does not have a full-fledged ICU and required consultants. The administration is making a mockery of the entire healthcare system by citing COVID pandemic,” he said.

Government Medical College Principal, Dr Samia Rashid, who looks after the seven associated hospitals of GMC, told ETV Bharat that when the patient, who died in CD hospital, was reported positive, they tried to refer him to SKIMS but they had no ventilator available in the ICU.

“He was referred to the CD hospital where we have a full-fledged ICU. Consultants are available for critical patients. Treatment does not get disrupted,” she said.

Jammu and Kashmir had reported 104 deaths due to COVID-19 till Wednesday while the people infected with the virus had crossed the 7000 mark.

Srinagar district with 25 deaths has the highest fatalities followed by Baramulla (17), Kulgam (13), Shopian (12), seven each from Jammu, Budgam, Anantnag 8 and Kupwara (5), Pulwama (four) while one death each has been reported from Bandipora, Poonch, Doda, Udhampur, Rajouri and Kathua.