Around 50 COVID-19 patients with vision loss, hearing impairment or physical disabilities who underwent treatment at Gandhi Hospital have recovered.
One among them is a 45-year-old man who is speech and hearing-impaired; he was discharged a few days ago. A video of him expressing gratitude to doctors and staff in sign language was circulated by the hospital administration on Wednesday. The patient used to communicate with doctors and staff through text messages whatever he wanted to ask and showed it to them.
Hospital nodal officer for COVID-19, T. Prabhakar Reddy said the 45-year-old is not the first patient with impairment to have recovered from the infectious disease at the COVID-designated hospital in the city.
The visually-impaired patients are mostly provided bed near bathrooms. Ward boys or neighbouring patients used to assist them in measuring steps to the bathrooms. Officials said that patients who do not have any form of disability help out patients with disabilities.
A separate ward is assigned to patients who have vision impairment, or a speech or hearing disability. However, the hospital lacks bathrooms for people with such disabilities and is in urgent need of upgrading its facilities for the convenience of such patients.
