Two more dengue deaths have come to light in Delhi, of a nine-year-old girl and a 27-year-old woman, with the parents of the former alleging that their daughter was refused admission by two private hospitals before she succumbed to the deadly disease.
Nishtha Taneja, of Malviya Nagar, died today at a private hospital in Vasant Kunj, while the 27-year-old married woman lost her life to the vector-borne disease yesterday at AIIMS.
The two deaths take the dengue toll this season in Delhi to 30 even though the official casualty figure is yet to be updated.
"Nishtha had fever and had started to vomit when we took her to a hospital in Malviya Nagar. But the doctors at the emergency there refused to attend to her and instead asked us to wait for the OPD to open at 9 AM," said Nishtha's uncle, Tarun.
He said that after tests at a private laboratory showed that Nishtha was afflicted by dengue, they took her to two private hospitals. He alleged that both hospitals, however, refused to admit her even though she had high fever.
"We then admitted her to a private nursing home, but when her condition deteriorated on 25th evening, they told us they do not have the required equipment to deal with such cases and that we should shift her to a bigger hospital," he said.
"The nursing home tried to arrange beds in several private hospitals, but all of them said they didn't have beds. Late in the night, we managed to arrange a bed at another hospital and shifted her there. At around 2.30 AM, they informed us that Nishtha has died," he said.
Delhi government has recently ordered that no hospital should deny admission to a dengue patient.
Meanwhile, officials at AIIMS said that a woman died there yesterday of dengue. The deceased hailed from Nadia district of West Bengal, they added.
Nearly 1,700 fresh dengue cases have been reported in the city in the past week, taking the total number of people affected by dengue to 5,471. The official death toll, updated till September 24, still stands at 17.
Last year, the city had reported three deaths and recorded nearly 1,000 cases.
