HYDERABAD: While COVID-19 scare is proving to be monstrous to deal with, for a few unlucky people, the nightmare is only getting bigger due to the apathy of some government hospitals. A botched-up medical report had put a man from Vikarabad district in Telangana under severe trauma as he tested ‘positive’ for the dreaded virus at Osmania Hospital but only to test ‘negative’ later at a private hospital here.

According to details, Meghanath Goud hailing from Kothlapur village of Vikarabad district was admitted to Osmania General Hospital on July 3 with some suspected symptoms of the virus. After the patient complained of difficulty in breathing, the doctors conducted COVID-19 test which came positive on July 7.

The news came like a bolt from the blue which left Goud shattered and feeling devastated. Even as the test report plunged him into a state of depression, he found out this discrepancy in it which prompted him to into an immediate course-correction. The report was in the name of someone else and the phone number mentioned in it too was different.

He immediately went to a corporate hospital and gave his sample for the COVID-19 test which returned with a negative report. To his relief, the doctors who examined him and the report ruled that he was not infected with coronavirus at all and that he was only suffering from pneumonia.

Following this, Goud went back to the Osmania General Hospital and questioned the authorities about the goof-up, only to be told that he was given a wrong report by mistake. The victim's brother said that the bungling of the reports at the Osmania hospital caused untold trauma to Goud and he was actually plunged into a state of depression.

Stating that Goud’s health has deteriorated, he squarely blamed the Osmania authorities for his brother not being able to receive timely treatment for pneumonia due to the report fiasco. He is being treated at a private hospital. Already, about Rs 11 lakhs were spent on his treatment and he needs Rs 15 lakhs more to complete the treatment, his brother claimed.