MEERUT: The daughter of a former master craftsman in the Military Engineering Services (MES) has told Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Aditnyanath in an agonised letter that her father, a Covid patient, has literally vanished from the
Intensive Care Unit
(ICU) of a
government hospital in Meerut
and that there is no trace of him for days now.
The hospital, meanwhile, said that Santosh Kumar, 64, could have died about 15 days ago and may have been buried as "anonymous".
Shifa Shivangi, daughter of deceased Santosh Kumar Gyanendra Kumar, principal of the state-run
Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College
, said, “There was no contact number of the family on the patient’s case file. We had cremated a dead body as anonymous. We are trying to probe if it was the same person.”
Kumar had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 21 and was taken to LLRM the same day.
Hospital authorities now claim the patient died on April 23, two days after he was admitted.
A resident of Bareilly, since March this year he had been staying with his daughter Shifa Shivangi in Ghaziabad for treatment of his wife who was diagnosed with cancer.
The family said they had been "getting his regular health updates" over the phone. But they suddenly lost complete contact on May 3. Shivangi, in an emotional appeal to
Yogi Adityanath, has said they need to at least find closure.
Reacting to the claim that the family was getting health updates about the patient till May 3, principal Kumar said, “There was another patient with a similar name in the ICU ward. Ward attendants used to give out the health update of that person when asked about Kumar.”
Shivangi said, “Hospital authorities have no answers regarding the whereabouts of my father. We sought CCTV footage but we are yet to receive it.”
Police have now registered a missing person complaint. “A probe is on," said Vineet Bhatnagar, SP (city) Meerut.