An asthma patient breathed his last on a road in Medak district of Telangana on June 11 after the ambulance staff declined to ferry him to a hospital.

In a video that surfaced over social media, a 52-year-old man was found lying on the ground next to a tree, with his head on his bag and struggling to breathe, as a policeman and other officials asked him questions.

‘I am having breathing problems. I am from Secunderabad,’ the man named R Srinivas Babu was heard telling the police in a report by The News Minute.

After interrogation, it was revealed that the man was returning to Hyderabad from Kamareddy district on a bus on the evening of June 10 and got down at Chegunta to visit a hospital after he suffered difficulty in breathing.

‘After the man suffered breathlessness, he asked the bus to stop, saying he will go to a hospital. He alighted and started walking towards the hospital, but suddenly collapsed at the side of the road,’ a police official told The News Minute.

The police rushed to the spot to provide him some aid and even called the ambulance. However, the ambulance took an hour to arrive, and even upon arrival, the staff refused to take the sick man saying the man was showing COVID symptoms.

The police then called up another ambulance, meant for shifting COVID-19 patients, which reached the spot after 45 minutes, but by the time it arrived, Srinivas had passed away.

The man’s family members and relatives were informed and the police arranged another ambulance to shift his body to Hyderabad. However, due to the natural cause of death, no FIR was filed by the deceased’s family.

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