Doctors desert AIDS patient at the Kolkota Medical College and Hospital

September 1, 2006

[Moderators note: If. Hon. Surjya Kanta Mishra, the West Bengal

state, minister for Health means business, he should press charges

of " Criminal Negligence " against the doctors who advised the

patient to undergo abortion just because she was HIV positive and

the hospital staff mistreated the patient]

Doctors desert AIDS patient at hospital

Sumati Yengkhom. [1 Sep, 2006 0159hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

KOLKATA: Twenty-three-year-old HIV carrier Reshma (name changed) sat

quietly in a corner while state health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra

talked about the need for civil society to understand the trauma of

AIDS patients at a city workshop on Thursday.

The minister's speech sounded like words from another world because

she is yet to get over what she underwent at a government hospital

some months back.

It all began after Reshma was detected HIV positive while she was

carrying. After another confirmation from the School of Tropical

Medicine, she was advised to undergo abortion.

But, by then, she had reached an advanced stage (six months). " She

was taken to the Medical College and Hospital for the abortion. Let

alone the ayaas, even doctors did not attend to her, " alleged D

Pandey, a social worker and also Reshma's neighbour at the

Jaanbazaar locality.

She was dumped in a corner bed away from other patients during her

two-day stay at the hospital. Doctors who had advised her to undergo

abortion left her with a few pills beside her bed..

When I started bleeding, I called the nurses. No one came to me. I

wanted to die then and there, but I realised I had my two-year-old

son to look after. When the foetus started coming out, I mustered

courage, grabbed it by the feet and dragged it out all by myself, " a

teary-eyed Reshma narrated her experience to TOI.

Reshma then did all the cleaning by herself, after which she was

bundled out of the hospital. Reshma was later taken to the health

minister by the Anti Psychotropic Substance & Drug Addiction Forum.

Mishra assured Reshma help in her treatment and promised to see that

no other AIDS patient meets her fate in government hospitals in the

future.

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