Around mid-April, a 63-year-old man, breathless and coughing frantically, was brought to M.Y. Hospital in Indore. After he was denied an ambulance, his son grabbed their scooter to move him. But as soon as they reached the hospital’s entrance, the man was dead, sitting limply between his wife and son on the scooter.
That day his brother, 60, rode beside them on another scooter. And a week later, he too died. Severe cough, unrelenting fever and furious breath. X-ray reports showing identical patches of pneumonia in lungs. Rapid worsening of condition. The brothers showed COVID-19 symptoms, but only the younger man was tested.
“If my uncle’s body had been tested for the disease, we could have probably saved my father,” said Rahul Chandne, 34. The hospital, a government-run COVID-19 facility, refused to take in his uncle’s body. As the family carried it back in an autorickshaw, a COVID-19 patient, who may have infected tens, including his brother, in the hardest hit city of Madhya Pradesh, was conveniently forgotten.
Mr. Chandne is sure his uncle unknowingly harboured SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the infection. “He had recently shifted to a house near us. Earlier, he lived in another locality, now a hotspot. The symptoms were initially silent,” he said.
As the body was not tested, no contact-tracing was done. This closed the only chance of zeroing in on the brother as a primary contact, isolating him and giving him early treatment. “No one took his swab samples or conducted a blood test even a day before his death, when he visited the hospital showing symptoms, he was given some treatment and sent back. They did not admit him,” Mr. Chandne said.
Two days after the younger brother’s death at the hospital on April 22, his report confirmed him positive. A day later, samples were collected from Mr. Chandne, his mother and wife. While two reports are awaited, his mother, who recently had bouts of loose stools, has tested negative. “The irony is that although my uncle was never tested for the illness, the authorities were quick to put up a quarantine sticker outside his and our house. They even tested his wife and son, who turned out negative,” he added.
“We are not authorised to collect samples from a body to test for the disease,” said Rahul Rokade, of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, which is attached with the hospital. “Only proper contact-tracing of the second man who died can tell us how he contracted it. At this point, we cannot be sure of the source.” As for reports of people being brought in after death, Dr. Rokade clarified that their samples were taken during treatment.
