Andhra Pradesh Medical Apathy: Dogs found chewing on COVID-19 patient’s unattended corpse in hospital
In a shocking incident reported from a government hospital in Andhra Pradesh’s Ongole on Monday, the dead body of a man was found with dog bite injuries on his face and an ear partially missing. The incident took place at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where the man’s body was found lying in a shed used as a shelter by the homeless and poor.
On Monday, hospital security found stray dogs chewing the ears of the victim, identified as Kantha Rao, a resident of Bitragunta village, Zarugumalli mandal, Prakasam district, with no attenders around the body. Following this, the security personnel shooed the dogs away and learnt that the victim was long dead.
Alleging medical negligence by RIMS, Kantha Rao’s relatives protested at the hospital and subsequently a probe was initiated into the incident. Shockingly, preliminary investigations revealed that the patient was never admitted to the hospital.
Referring to the family members’ claims, RIMS Superintendent Dr Sreeramulu said that Kantha Rao was brought to RIMS on August 5. However, he was never enrolled into the hospital as an ‘in-patient’. It remains unclear as to why the hospital denied him admission and why Kantha Rao was forced to sleep in the shed for at least five days without any treatment. An inquiry has been initiated into this, the Superintendent said.
“As per our records, Kantha Rao was not admitted to the hospital. There is no record of him either as an in-patient or outpatient. The family members are saying that he was brought to the hospital on August 5 in an ambulance after testing positive for coronavirus. But he was staying in the old canteen shed, which is usually occupied by homeless people, so nobody in the hospital attended to him,” Dr Sreeramulu said.
He added, “On Monday, when stray dogs were found attacking him, some hospital visitors and hospital security shooed the dogs away and that’s when we found that he was dead.”
The Superintendent said that they have initiated an inquiry to find out if Kantha Rao was denied admission to the hospital, or if he refused treatment and took shelter in the hospital premises.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister and opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu shared a video of the dead body and said that it was a “serious violation of human dignity” and accused the Jagan-led government of “management failure”.
