Tokyo man in 80s dies of COVID-19 at home after being rejected by hospitals
(Mainichi Japan)
TOKYO --- A man in his 80s died at home from COVID-19 after multiple hospitals declined to give him a bed, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced on Jan. 13.
The patient developed a fever and other symptoms on Jan. 8, a day after he tested positive for the coronavirus. His family requested he be hospitalized, but organizations in charge could not find a place to take him, and he died on Jan. 11.
He had an underlying health condition -- diabetes -- and was thus supposed to be hospitalized under Tokyo's standards for coronavirus patients.
"If the patient had been hospitalized appropriately, this situation would not have occurred," the metro government said.
Metro Tokyo also announced that a female COVID-19 patient in her 50s with high blood pressure had also died while recuperating at home.
(Japanese original by Koichi Uchida, City News Department)
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