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Bhopal gas tragedy victims dying of coronavirus as hospitals deny admission

Bhopal: The Bhopal gas leak victims are dying from coronavirus due to the negligence of the government according to the relatives and family of the sufferers.

The 1984 terrible gas leak from a factory in Bhopal left thousands of people with respiratory ailments for life. The world’s worst industrial disaster which saw the accidental release of the toxic gas methyl isocyanate from the Union Carbide factory gave 3500 an instant death and 25000 lost their lives in the subsequent years due to the leak’s after-effects.

The victims of the tragedy now constitute close to half of the dead due to coronavirus, according to the government. Although, activists claim that 37 out of 45 deaths reported because of the virus are the people who had illnesses related to the gas escape.

These sufferers were not being granted treatment in the hospitals constructed especially for the people affected by the gas leak. Many such victims have died after they were denied admission into the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC). The hospital is a busy four-storey 350-bed facility in Madhya Pradesh which was transformed into one for covid-19 patients in March. As such, those who had symptoms of the coronavirus weren’t allowed to gain the treatment that they much needed.

Due to the confusion, a lot of time was wasted in shifting the gas leak victims from one hospital to another. A drive of 40 mins turned into one of hours as hospitals denied facilities for these patients stating that they did not have enough equipment to serve the gas tragedy victims. This loss of time resulted in the death of many people.

According to the critics, the BMHRC refused patients who they did not consider to be affected with coronavirus even though they had all the symptoms. Henceforth, they weren’t tested as well.

“If there was no confusion over the status of Bhopal Memorial Hospital, my father would probably be alive,” Khatik, son of one of the gas leak victims’ said after his sick father was denied admission in BMHRC. His father was later taken in by a private hospital where he was tested positive for covid-19. He died within hours of testing positive as his condition had deteriorated till the time any hospital admitted him for treatment. He has left behind his entire family with no earning member and hefty medical debts.

Eventually, the decision to turn the BMHRC into one for covid-19 patients solely has been reversed but activists say that the delay has cost them the loss of atleast 5 victims although the authorities claim that one life has been lost due to this.

Bhopal’s health commissioner Faiz Ahmed Kidwai told AFP, “Only one case of a patient turned away is accurate. All those who died did not die because BMHRC refused admission.”