In yet another tragic incident of death of a frontline warrior against coronavirus, a government doctor in Karnataka has lost his life due to coronavirus. Amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, doctors, who are putting their lives at risk and treating coronavirus patients, have not been spared by the COVID-19.
It appears that the 50-year-old doctor had come in contact with a coronavirus patient during treatment, as a result of which, he started developing symptoms by the end of June and later tested positive for coronavirus.
According to reports, the 50-year-old doctor was on COVID-19 duty at Chikkamudavadi Primary Health Centre in Kanakapura taluk, Ramanagara district which is around 50 km from Bengaluru.
“It was a suspected case, and he was awaiting his test report. We, doctors, could not get a bed for him in three private hospitals we went to. All three hospitals rejected admission as he didn’t have his Covid-19 test report,” Dr. Nagendra, Manjunath’s brother-in-law told The Times of India.
He was finally admitted to Sagar hospital on June 25 when his family held a protest in front of the fourth hospital named the Dayananda Sagar campus.
His condition improved for a while before it began deteriorating and we shifted him to the BMCRI on July 9. He was on ventilator. The doctors had said his lung wasn’t expanding and he required to be in the prone position, but that was not done,” said Dr Nagendra.
He further alleged that Manjunath required the assistance of a physiotherapist to be put in the prone position, and no physiotherapist agreed to wear PPE and enter the COVID ICU.
Finally, they sought the help of a private physiotherapist, who agreed to come, but by then it was too late and Manjunath succumbed to the virus on Wednesday.
We must salute this doctor who never took even one day off and sacrificed his life for saving others. He did his best to save several patients without caring about his life. Hats off to him!