12 hrs after testing +ve, resident doctor dies

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, November 13

Barely 12 hours after testing positive for Covid-19, a 25-year-old postgraduate medical student of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital died here this morning.

Dr Ankit Kumar, who belonged to Haridwar in Uttarakhand, was a first-year junior resident in the Surgery Department. He had extremely low levels of oxygen.

Dr Kumar had joined the MS surgery course in the medical college around two months ago after completing his MBBS from Rajindra Medical College and Hospital, Patiala, earlier this year.

After working for a week in the Covid ward, he had tested negative for the virus. However, doctors suggested a retest after he complained of acute abdominal pain and vomiting on Thursday afternoon. He later tested positive.

Dr Kumar was taken to the ICU, but his condition deteriorated and he succumbed to the virus this morning.

Doctors at the medical college are baffled at the rate at which Dr Kumar’s condition deteriorated. “In view of the second phase of the pandemic, we need to assess this elaborately,” said an official.

“A young doctor died due to the virus. People should not take Covid-19 lightly,” said Dr Raj Bahadur, Vice Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences.

For the past four months, junior resident doctors have been accusing the medical college authorities of apathetic attitude, saying they were putting their lives at risk by performing duties in the Covid wards without full protection.

The junior resident doctors, who are doing round-the-clock duties in Covid wards of the hospital, had even submitted a memorandum to the authorities voicing concerns over the risk involved. The association of the junior doctors had demanded safety and security for them in the hospital.

80 infected in 4 months

• Over the past four months, more than 80 docs and paramedical staff in the hospital have already got infected
• Junior docs, performing round-the-clock duties in Covid wards, had submitted a memo to the medical college authorities over the risk involved

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