Chandigarh: Deaths due to Covid or comorbidities?

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, January 17

Six Covid patients, who died in hospital, were found suffering from multiple comorbidities such as renal disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease among many other ailments, while four patients were brought dead to the hospital and incidentally tested positive for Covid.

Difficult to say

It is difficult to say whether these patients died primarily due to Covid-19 or their comorbidities were more dominant. — Dr Suman Singh, DHS, UT

While six patients were above 60 years, two were in their 50s and two below 45 years. Seven of them were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and one was partially vaccinated. The status of the remaining two patients is not known. A 63-year-old woman, who died at the PGI, was suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia and was undergoing chemotherapy. She was also Covid positive.

Another 87-year-old Covid patient died at the GMCH, Sector 32, as she developed urosepsis with multi-organ dysfunction syndrome. She had other ailments, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and hypothyroidism.

Another 72-year-old woman, who was fully vaccinated, died at the PGI last week. She was a case of coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension and hyperthyroidism. One patient died after developing bronchopneumonia and another one who developed respiratory failure was suffering from asthma.

Dr Suman Singh, Director, Health Services, UT, said, “It is difficult to say whether these patients died primarily due to Covid-19 or their comorbidities were more dominant. In many patients who died in hospital, Covid symptoms were not diagnosed like pneumonia or oxygen desaturation, as was seen in the second wave. The disease is in a milder form. These patients had multiple comorbidities and were already sick.”

Dr Sanjeev Palta from the Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, GMCH, said, “In the second wave, patients either came with pneumonia or developed severe Covid symptoms during the course of admission. This time, pneumonia triggered by Covid is not seen. Going by the milder symptoms of Covid patients, it is suspected that these cases are omicron; however, scientific evidence is needed.”

Dr Palta said, “A lot of patients came for other ailments and were shifted to an isolation ward after contracting Covid in the hospital. It is because of the high infectivity of Omicron that there are a lot of incidental findings this time.”

Among the patients who died at home and tested positive for Covid posthumously was a known case of diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease, while another was a case of hypertension. A 68-year-old patient, who was brought dead, tested positive for Covid and was found suffering from heart disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus.

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