A private hospital in Nalasopara has landed in controversy as a Malad family alleged that the authorities kept them in the dark about the condition of a 57-year-old COVID-19 patient, and when they got suspicious about it, they declared her dead. The family has decided to approach the police commissioner while the hospital has rubbished the allegations.

According to the family, the patient was taking treatment for urinary tract infection from a local doctor when she developed COVID-19 symptoms. After they visited another doctor on April 30, he gave her medicines. "As her condition didn't improve, we visited another doctor on May 2. He suggested that she should undergo a chest X-Ray, blood test and COVID-19 test," said the deceased's 30-year-old son.

He further said, "After checking her reports on May 4 the doctor asked me to admit her to a hospital. We took her to Sanjivni Hospital in Malad East, but they refused to admit her because she was a COVID-19 suspect." The family members then took her to Apex Hospital but even they refused admission.

"Then we took her to Cooper Hospital. After we reached around 8 pm and finished the paperwork, the authorities asked us to come back the next day as the admission time was over. Then we admitted her to Riddhivinayak Hospital (Malad) and on May 6 her reports came positive for COVID-19. The hospital asked me to clear the bill and shift her to their COVID branch in Nalasopara. I immediately cleared a bill of Rs 82,000 and got her into an ambulance. While we were on our way to Nalasopara, a man named Sagar from the hospital asked for a Rs 50,000 deposit, which I paid," the son added.