Bhatkal: A 65-year-old man  died of heart attack hours after he was turned away by hospitals over Covid scare.

Hukumaram Borana from Rajasthan who ran a bakery near the bus stand at Murdeshwar, visited a local dispensary on Monday after complaints of chest pain, however he suffered a massive heart attack and fell unconscious outside the clinic. When the locals dialled 108 for ambulance service, they were allegedly told that the vehicles are on Covid duty. Local autorickshaw drivers too refused ferry the man over Covid scare.

After some delay, a driver agreed to ferry him and they took him to a local private hospital. Sukumaran was alive when they reached the hospital, said his son Hitesh Borana. However, the doctors at the hospital refused to admit him without his Covid-19 test results. According to Hitesh, the private doctors reportedly asked to shift him to the government hospital, but when they reached Murdeshwar Govt hospital, they also refused to attend the patient and even threatened them that they would be reported to police if he wasn’t taken the body from govt hospital.

Subsequently, he was taken to another private clinic where the doctor said that he is alive and then taken him to the hospital.

Later, Hukuma Ram died while being shifted in the autorickshaw to Bhatkal Goverment taluka Hospital.

Dr Savita Kamath, taluk health officer at the Government hospital in Bhatkal said Hukuma Ram was subjected to Covid test after his death and the results were negative. Enraged by the incident, locals sought action against the doctors who refused to treat the victim and wasted over  three hours of golden period.