Ghatkopar builder suffers heart attack, struggles to get bed in ICU for 7 hours

A Ghatkopar The builder’s family’s fight for seven hours to get him a bed in the ICU after suffering a heart attack last week offers a glimpse into the larger crisis engulfing Mumbai. The ICUs of all private Covid-19 hospitals are fully occupied, with only 33 vacant in the public hospital and 29 in the eight giant centers following an increase in cases over the last fortnight. Many of the 33 private hospitals have waiting lists of 18 to 20 patients.

The builder, Harshad Sanghvi, co-founder of the Sanghvi Group of Companies, suffered a heart attack around 7.30pm on Friday and was rushed to Zen Hospital in Chembur. An ECG suggested coronary artery disease, and a chest CT scan showed patches of pneumonia in his lungs. Suspecting that he had contracted SARS-COV-2, the hospital, which is not authorized to treat these patients, recommended that he be sent to a Covid-19 hospital for angioplasty.

That’s when the bed shortage crisis hit home. It was already 10:30 pm and Sanghvi’s condition began to deteriorate. The family approached all licensed hospitals near Chembur first, but none of the facilities had openings in their ICUs. The search later expanded to private hospitals across the city, Sanghvi’s brother Kirti said. Again, no luck.

At that point, Sanghvi’s oxygen saturation level dropped to 85 and he began to experience breathing difficulties. Hope came around 2.30am Saturday, from another tragedy: Surana Sethia Hospital in Chembur, which had previously expressed its helplessness, called the family after a Covid-19 patient in their ICU died.

As Sanghvi was rushed to that hospital, more challenges emerged. Although authorities at Surana Sethia Hospital were able to summon a cardiologist, Dr. Nitin Bote, late at night, they were reluctant to ask for help from his cardiac catheterization lab assistant, Shrikant, as he was still recovering from Covid-19 in the hospital. Covid-19 in the hospital. The worsening condition of the builder led them to dismiss subtleties, wake Shrikant from his sleep, and request his help.

“Two minutes after the patient’s arrival, they transferred him to the table in the catheterization laboratory. In less than 12 minutes, an angiography was performed, ”said Dr. Prince Surana, executive director of the hospital. The test showed a 100 percent blockage in Sanghvi’s left circumflex artery.

An immediate angioplasty was the only way to save his life. Sanghvi’s relatives, who waited anxiously outside the hospital door, were informed and the procedure was carried out. Before that, his swab samples were sent for a Covid-19 test.

The procedure went smoothly. “His vital signs returned to normal, after which he was transferred to the ICU,” said Dr. Bote. Dr. Surana said that Sanghvi, whose Covid-19 test result came back positive on Sunday, is now stable and on a course of the antiviral drug remdesivir.

That Sanghvi was able to get a bed only due to the death of another patient points to the larger ongoing crisis. Doctors have warned that despite all the progress in the battle against the virus, the scene in the city is beginning to look eerily like the April-May crisis. The ICUs of major private hospitals like Lilavati, Hinduja, Nanavati, Hiranandani, Wockhardt, Bhatia, Jaslok, Bombay and Breach Candy are full. Authorities said that while public hospitals have 33 ICU beds available, Sion, Nair, KEM and SevenHills Hospitals said Sunday there was no more space. A senior physician attached to a private hospital in South Mumbai said most patients are reluctant to seek treatment at the giant centers.

Dr. Jaleel Parkar, chief pulmonologist at Lilavati Hospital, said the center’s 60 ICU beds are occupied and 18 patients are on the waiting list. “There is a 40-year-old patient on the ventilator who is also on the waiting list.

Only if a patient in the ICU recovers quickly or dies will he get a bed, ”he shrugged. “The situation will only get worse if the medical infrastructure throughout the city is not improved.”

Joy Chakraborty, director of operations at PD Hinduja Hospital in Mahim, whose 26 ICU beds are full, said the bed shortage crisis started two weeks ago, coinciding with the rapid rise in coronavirus cases. Nine patients are on the ICU waiting list. “Most hospitals in the city of Mumbai also receive patients from satellite cities. That could also have led to shortages, ”Chakraborty said.

Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, which has no vacancies in its 16-bed ICU, has 20 patients on its waiting list. “Over the past week, we have received patients from across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region,” said its CEO, Dr. Sujit Chatterjee, who also warned that the shortage will only get worse.

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The acute bed shortage arose as Mumbai began setting dismal records in a single day for both cases and victims. It even led the state’s Covid-19 task force to recommend that the 72 small private hospitals that last month failed to treat coronavirus patients be cornered once again. The 72 hospitals were removed from the list after an audit found that private facilities were responsible for 41 percent of the death toll in the city as of mid-August.