In a shocking incident, an infant undergoing treatment at the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Government General Hospital (GGH) here was bitten to death by rats on Wednesday19-08-2015

In a shocking incident, an infant undergoing treatment at the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Government General Hospital (GGH) here was bitten to death by rats on Wednesday19-08-2015

The rodents bit the left eye and fingers of the 10-day-old baby boy in the early hours of Wednesday. His face was also scratched. In the morning, the parents were horrified to see the boy bleeding profusely and rushed to the doctor on duty for help, who allegedly did not respond to the emergency resulting in the death of the baby. "My son was not killed by the rats. He was killed by the doctors and staff at GGH," said Chavali Lakshmi, the mother. She alleged that the authorities at GGH did not bother to prevent the entry of rats into the children's ward despite their repeated requests and pleas.

Some patients of the hospital told TOI said there have indeed been instances of rodents attacking infants, but the authorities did not bother to take steps to check the menace. When contacted, GGH superintendent T Venugopala Rao said he would inquire into the incident and take action on the errant staff.

"It is an unfortunate incident. We set up a rat mesh in NICU soon after receiving complaints about the movement of killer rats. We did not expect that it will take this turn," said Dr Rao.

Who will hold responsible?

Everyone in the society is responsible for this and it is quite unfortunate incidence. With this we know that how much hygiene is there in Government maintained hospitals and it is not in the case of Guntur and it should be an eye opener to all the Hospitals and we talk about Swachh and Cleanliness. The present the RMO will l be held responsible and he will be being the head of the unit and it lies moral responsibility that he should see that the surrounding should be kept clean indisputably, the incident has to be condemned by all sections. But the moot question is who’s to be blamed and who’d take the responsibility?

Who will take the resposiblity like ICU caretakers or hospital administration or government officials or health ministry or AP Chief Minister or the boy’s parents? Who’d be held guilty of the incident? Where will the buck stops? Though State government and health ministry responded on time and suspended few officials and ordered probe, the possible outcome of the inquiry would be pointing fingers at soft targets.

Out Come of the Incident:

Following public outcry over the incident, the CM expressed his dismay and ordered for the suspension of three staffers including in charge RMO of the hospital.

Explaining the same to the mediapersons later, Kamineni Srinivas said that the incident was shocking and he was most moved by it. He asserted that measures were being initiated so such incidents do not recur anywhere in the state and the government hospitals will be strengthened to this effect as well. For complete sanitation overhaul of the Guntur Government General Hospital, the government had sanctioned `3.30 crore and necessary powers were entrusted to the district collector. The contract given to the third party for maintenance of cleanliness and sanitation works in the hospital had been terminated, he informed.

Conclusion:

We react something happens but we will not take the measures to control such incidents. All the head of the departments are least bothered about the sanitation and the concerned health ministry should check periodically and should assure all kind of financial assistance and anyone who is not attentive nor gives least importance to the duty he should be immediately suspended.