In a shocking incident, a body kept in the mortuary of a government hospital in Telangana’s Jagtial district, was allegedly nibbled at, by rats.
As the incident came to light, Karimnagar District Collector A Sharath suspended a ward attendant, who was reportedly responsible for it.
The deceased, Arshad Pasha, had killed himself on Saturday due to family affairs, following which, his body was brought to the government hospital at Jagtial town in the night, for a post-mortem.
Despite orders from the doctors to keep the body in the freezer, the attendant allegedly kept the body in an unprotected zone in the mortuary, which attracted the rats.
On learning about the incident, relatives of Pasha staged a protest, alleging negligence of the hospital staff.
They calmed down after the Collector visited the spot and assured the deceased's family that strict action would be taken against the accused.
The District Collector also constituted a committee consisting of the District Medical Health Officer, R Sugandhini and Revenue Divisional Officer Narender, to probe the issue, according to local media.
Following the probe by the committee, the district collector suspended concerned staff and issued memos to others.
Speaking to DC, Dr Sugandhini confirmed, “The collector ordered suspension of the officer concerned and issued a memo to another hospital staffer.”
In the wake of several such incidents of medical negligence in Jagtial’s government hospitals, the Collector also conducted an inspection and review with authorities and hinted that the hospital may soon get CCTV cameras installed, for avoiding such incidents.
However, this is not the first such incident in the two Telugu states.
In August 2015, a 10-day-old baby died after being bitten by rats in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Government General Hospital in Guntur town in Andhra Pradesh.
The infant was shifted to Guntur for a surgery after developing some health complications and afterwards, placed in the ICU.
However, the appalling conditions at the hospital resulted in rats entering the area and biting the baby, leading to its death.
Three officials were later suspended for negligence.