KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, July 18: A 53-year-old man Birenchi Mahto died of a snake bite at MGM medical college hospital due to a lack of medicine on Tuesday morning.
A resident of Parvatipur in the RIT thana area of Adityapur, Birenchi and his wife Anjana Mahto had fallen victim to a snake bite at their house in the small hours today.
The victims’ son Lakhi Narayan Mahto had immediately rushed his parents to the medical college hospital — about a 30-minute ride from Parvatipur.
At the hospital, the couple had reached in serious condition by 1.30 am when the doctors on emergency duty had administered one injection to each besides some pills, but asked the patients’ son to bring another injection from outside as it was not available in the hospital.
As it was unearthly hours, Lakhi Narayan could not get the injection as all the medicine shops were closed. Lakhi Narayan, however, found the injection by 8 am today, but by the time he returned to the hospital, his father had already died.
The life of Anjana Mahto could, however, be saved as soon as she was administered a life-saving injection brought by her son.
The unfortunate Lakhi Narayan said her parents were bitten by a poisonous snake while they were asleep on the floor past midnight. He said after coming to know about the snake bite, he had killed the reptile and had rushed to the medical college hospital, believing that it is a dependable health hub in the region.
Superintendent, MGM medical college hospital, Ravindra Kumar claimed that there was no dearth of anti-venom injections in his hospital.
“Maybe the doctors on emergency duty had prescribed for some other medicine to be procured from the market, ” he pointed out while replying to queries by lagatar24.com.
But when queried as to the absence of injection other than the anti-venom serum necessary for a snake bite patient, especially during the rainy season when the cases of snake bite go up, the superintendent had no answer.
“At the medical college hospital here patients undergo treatment at God’s mercy. The hospital authority tends to give a vague reply whenever a patient dies due to medical negligence or something like that. Actually, the Deputy Commissioner should monitor regularly whether this government-run hospital has the necessary stocks of all life-saving drugs, ” observed a relative of deceased Birenchi Mahto while talking to lagatar24.com.
