Staff Correspondent | New Age Apr 30,2020
A World Bank official on Wednesday wrote a letter to prime minister Sheikh Hasina alleging that his mother died after being denied treatment at a private hospital in Dhaka.
He blamed the loss of his mother on healthcare mismanagement of United Hospital Limited and requested that the prime minister to intervene to bring those responsible for the death of his mother to book.
‘After my mother died, I am writing the first-ever letter in my life to you and I demand justice for my mother,’ read the first line of the letter addressed to the PM’s Office at Tejgaon.
Ziauddin Hyder, cluster leader for health, nutrition and population global practice in Cambodia and Lao PDR, World Bank, wrote that his mother, Mahmuda Khanam, 75, got ill on April 5 with severe cold.
On April 11, Mahmuda needed hospitalisation but two hospitals — Lubana and Apollo — refused to admit her and later she was taken to Uttara and was finally admitted at Regent Hospital, the letter reads.
Mahmuda needed artificial support to breathe when shifted to United Hospital for better treatment after being tested negative for COVID-19 on April 12, according to the letter.
But the hospital authorities began pressurising family members to relocate Mahmuda after she tested positive for COVID-19 on April 13 at the hospital, the letter said.
Although Mahmuda was on ventilation in an isolated room, the hospital authorities kept pressuring her family members to take her away on their own arrangements, the letters said.
Around 2:00pm, the hospital authorities put Mahmuda off ventilation and she was taken to Kuwait Maitree Hospital where she passed away nine days later on April 23, the letter said. ‘The way the United Hospital forcibly released a patient on life support is unprecedented, unethical and illegal,’ wrote Zia in the letter.
Shagufa Anwar, director, communications and business development, United Hospital Limited, claimed that the patient was released after discussion with her family.
‘We followed the national guideline to treat COVID-19 patient in dedicated hospital so as not to infect patients with common illness,’ she said.
‘Our hospital is not authorised for treating COVID-19 patients,’ she said.
