Jammu:
In a shocking case of medical negligence and apathy, a man has been left to die in a hospital in Jammu after authorities realised that he could not be saved.
Lying on a stretcher in a corridor of the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu since this morning, the man has been completely ignored by hospital authorities. Even as passers-by have complained of a foul stench emanating from near him, the hospital staff has turned a blind eye to his deteriorating condition. Worse, the ailing man has no family or friends to look after him.
"He has been lying here for the past 3-4 hours...there's so much of stinking smell here. The patient should be treated properly, he has been left astray," said an eyewitness.
The patient was admitted to the emergency ward of the hospital three days ago by a charitable trust. For the first two days, he was attended by doctors like any other patient in the hospital. But when it became increasingly clear that he could not be saved, the hospital authorities allegedly abandoned him.
"We were seeing for the past 2-3 days that he was in the Emergency, in the additional block of the Emergency. For few days, his clothes were changed, drip was administered and his file was made but when the administration (hospital) realised that he could not be saved, they didn't make an attempt to save the patient and left him to die," said another eyewitness.
"When they realised they couldn't treat, they just left him," said Chairman of Dabotra Trust, which admitted the victim.
The hospital administration has so far refused to comment on the incident.
Significantly, several visitors at the hospital allege that it is not the first instance of such gross negligence on the part of the hospital authorities.