Malkangiri: Even as the Odisha government is working hard and spending crores of rupees to ensure that people in every nook and corner of the state receive quality medical services, negligence and greed of a few unscrupulous health service professionals are proving to be a major hindrance in making the mission successful.
This was evident when a dialysis patient Tapan Ray (55) bled to death at Malkangiri District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) on Wednesday owing to the alleged neglect of money-hungry staff of the hospital.
Tapan, a resident of MV 72 village under Kalimela block of Odisha’s Malkangiri district, has been suffering from kidney ailment for the past two months and was undergoing treatment at MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur. He underwent four dialysis treatments there and was released after recovery.
Tapan’s health began to deteriorate on Tuesday and his family took him to Malkangiri DHH for dialysis on Wednesday. However, instead of attending to his needs immediately, the technician at the Malkangiri DHH dialysis unit allegedly demanded a gratification of Rs 5,000 from Tapan’s wife Basanti to start the dialysis. Initially, Basanti expressed her helplessness in paying the amount but when the technician Sujay Giri insisted that he would not start the dialysis without receiving the money, Basanti’s daughter sent him the money through PhonePe.
Despite the efforts of his family, Tapan died during the dialysis – allegedly due to the delay in attending to his healthcare needs.
Later, Basanti alleged that the doctors and technician Sujay Giri were responsible for her husband’s death. “When we brought my husband to the hospital he was well, but after the dialysis we found him in a pool of blood. There was much blood loss during the dialysis and no one cared to treat him or provide him with blood,” she claimed.
Meanwhile, Dr Jay Ranjan, the doctor who was on duty during the dialysis, said, “Tapan was brought to the hospital in a critical condition. His blood pressure was very high and creatin and urea levels were abnormal. He also lost much blood during the dialysis resulting in his death.” The doctor, however, evaded answering questions on the graft taken by technician Sujay Giri.
