In a tragic incident that caused a major stir in the north Maharashtra city, a 38-year-old Covid-19 patient -- with plummeting Oxygen levels-- died in the small hours of Thursday, hours after he staged a protest along with an Oxygen cylinder near the main entrance of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) for allegedly not getting admission in district civil, municipal hospital and private hospitals.
After making unsuccessful rounds to various private and municipal hospitals seeking admission, one Babasaheb Kole – a resident of Kamatewade locality of Nashik's CIDCO area who had tested positive on Tuesday and was finding it difficult to breathe --was on Wednesday evening taken to a government hospital where the officials provided him an Oxygen mask and cylinder. However, he did not get admission even in the government hospital.
In his effort to draw the attention of the civic authorities, Kole --sporting a yellow T-shirt, blue jeans and wearing the oxygen mask connected to a cylinder, sat in a chair near the entrance of the NMC building on Wednesday evening to protest against the lack of a Covid bed for him in the civic and other hospitals at Nashik.
Before long, a crowd gathered around him and the message reached NMC Commissioner Kailash Jadhav, who rushed Additional Municipal Commissioner Dr Pravin Ashtikar to meet him. Minutes later, Kole was taken to a civic hospital, where he died in the small hours of Thursday.
Kole’s Oxygen levels had come down to 37 per cent against the normal 95-96 per cent, when he was rushed to the NMC hospital. He was finding it very difficult to breathe. He breathed his last after the efforts by doctors at the NMC Hospital to revive him failed.
Meanwhile, the Nashik Municipal Commissioner has asked the Nashik Police to investigate and identify the persons who ‘instigated’ the patient to go on a protest in front of NMC headquarters and what their “ulterior motives”.