COVID-19 surge | In Chennai, a happy ending after tense moments

Hospital beds are hard to come by

Sandhya Kumar got a call from a friend in Dubai two days ago to help his sister get a hospital bed as she was becoming breathless. Ms. Sandhya and her husband were then returning from Chengalpattu. They started making calls as they were driving back to the City. “We were trying desperately, contacting friends, doctors in the family to find her a bed. Her oxygen saturation level had fallen to 72. Her husband hired an ambulance and took her to two hospitals, but they could not admit her as they were overflowing with patients. They were getting nowhere and they came back home.” All the networking over the phone helped and Ms. Sandhya finally managed to find a hospital with bed after two hours. The next issue was getting an ambulance. An ambulance service in Purasaiwalkam agreed to transport her for ₹3,500.