A 50-year-old HIV+ man brought in from Giridih by his son and relatives breathed his last in hope of treatment at the emergency ward in Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) Thursday. His relatives alleged that the doctors present there refused to admit him in hospital’s ward.
The embarrassing incident that keeps being reported from the State’s top hospital wherein doctors would often refuse to treat HIV+ patients, has shown its ugly face once again when this old man infected with the deadly virus was rushed in to the emergency ward Wednesday night by his family. The family alleged the patient was checked by a few attendants and then left untreated till he died Thursday morning around 11 am.
Dr Bl Sherwal, Director of RIMS, when contacted first denied having any treatment given to the patient, later said that what has happened was unfortunate. “I have no such information and he has been denied treatments. It is matter of investigation and if this has happened it is very unfortunate,” said he.
The distraught family alleged that the doctors refused to treat him only because he was an HIV+ patient. The deceased’s son wanted to sit on a dharna in front of the emergency ward inside the RIMS premises in protest against the negligent attitude towards such critical patient, which led to his father’s death.
However, a group of junior doctors and staff finally offered their condolences to the family and after much persuasion were able to avert any protest at the hospital. Finally, the security ensured that the deceased’s family left in the same vehicle that they had arrived in yesterday.