Dramatic situation, in a public hospital, in India. A patient was injured in a bus accident and amputated a leg. His cut leg served as a pillow. The hospital staff refused to provide him with a pillow, accusing the patient’s family. Two doctors were suspended.
Two Indian doctors have been suspended and an investigation is underway after a patient’s amputated leg has been used as a pillow, local hospital authorities said Sunday.
“We set up a committee of four people to establish who put the amputated leg under the patient’s head, ” said Sadhna Kaushik, head of the Maharani Laxmibai Hospital in Jhansi (center of India).
“Firm measures will be taken if it is a fault of our staff,” he added after the release of images showing the patient on a stretcher with his leg amputated under his head.
Refused to give him a pillow
The patient identified as Ghanshyam, 28, was seriously injured in a bus accident. His family told NDTV that hospital staff refused to give him a pillow.
“When we arrived at the hospital, we saw that his leg was used as a pillow,” said one of them, Janaki Prasad, on NDTV. “I repeatedly asked the doctors to intervene, but they refused” suggesting that relatives have to buy a pillow themselves from the local market, he continued.
Underfunded, poorly equipped public hospitals
Indian public hospitals are often poorly equipped, underfunded and severely understaffed. The state of Uttar Pradesh, which has 200 million inhabitants, is one of the poorest in the country, and patients often have to wait for the least treatment.
Last year, dozens of children died in a state hospital because of a shortage of oxygen. And a man pretending to be an unlicensed doctor was arrested last month for contaminating 46 people with HIV by reusing the same syringe.