Patients nibbled by rodents
Posted on February 13, 2012
Recently I read a news report in an Indian newspaper, that a comatose patient, being kept on ventilator in an ICU of Mathura Das Mathur Hospital Jodhpur, was nibbled by rodents on ear, lips, cheeks and nose, while the nursing staff slept. In reaction, the responsible staff was suspended.
This story reminds me of some scenes that I have seen in Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, a hundred times. One being healthy cannot take care of him/her self here, I have seen staff nurse being bitten by a cat twice, one doctor friend, while examining a patient was bitten by a cat on foot. Cats are not only inside hospital but in the wards too. Poor people, accompanying patients, usually sleep on floors along with their food and other stuff, beacuse of lack of place.
Cats touch their stuff, half eat their food and lot more. In or near surgical OTs, these cats have been noticed eating the human flesh, which is taken off from body during some opertation, like placentas, appendix, etc. Patients visit hospitals for cure or care, but here unfortunately the caretakers are not even safe. At night, when the hospital is quiet and the inside roads are empty, one is scared to walk there because of stray dogs.
Before we experience a bad scene due to presence of these animals in the hospitals, the authorities should take them out of hospitals, and they should seal all such entrances of the wards and rooms where from cats and rodents can enter. This was one of the several basic problems of government hospitals. By focusing and taking care of these basic things, one can make these public sector hospitals, better place for the sick ones.
Dr. Mubashir H. Shaikh
Hyderabad, Sindh
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