E-Paper
ICCU at Civil infested with rats
IS IT the intensive care unit of one of the most prominent government hospitals of Lucknow, or a breeding ground for rats? God forbid, if a loved one has to be taken to the Shyama Pratap Mukherjee Hospital (Civil Hospital)! Right inside the hi-tech Intensive Critical Care Unit (ICCU), amidst the life-support systems, there are big fat rats making merry. The rodents, having fed on medicines in the store next-door, gnaw away at the tubes and wires in the ICCU.
IS IT the intensive care unit of one of the most prominent government hospitals of Lucknow, or a breeding ground for rats?
God forbid, if a loved one has to be taken to the Shyama Pratap Mukherjee Hospital (Civil Hospital)! Right inside the hi-tech Intensive Critical Care Unit (ICCU), amidst the life-support systems, there are big fat rats making merry.
The rodents, having fed on medicines in the store next-door, gnaw away at the tubes and wires in the ICCU. What doctors may presume to be a patient’s life ebbing on the monitor may just be the movement of rats coming into the ICCU via ducts.
The painful part is that everyday the rats bite patients and their attendants. Worse still, the bite victims don’t know that they must get themselves vaccinated to save themselves from deadly consequences like septic and in some cases rabies.
Raveesh is a sepoy with the PAC in Moradabad. He was here to meet constable Satish Malik who is admitted to the ICCU ward number 1. About two days back, a rat bit him. “I was sleeping on the bed, when around 3.30 in the night, a rat bit me on my toe and blood started oozing out. All night I could not sleep for the fear that I might get bitten again,” said Raveesh.
Chief medical superintendent Dr HN Tripathi admitted the problem was rampant. “We have received complaints about rats, particularly in the ICCU. We
are planning a pest control exercise.”
He agreed that rat bite could be worse if the patient was diabetic. Satish Malik in ward number 1 of the ICCU is a constable posted in Moradabad. He was in Lucknow, escorting the DGP. It is more than a week now since Satish and his wife Poonam have been facing the menace of rats. “We cannot leave the door open. A rat was there right on my bed. We cannot leave anything uncovered,” lamented the couple.
Ankit Saxena in ICCU room 3 who is attending to her grandmother said, “Yesterday I went out, but seeing fat rats running in the lobby, I came back.”
Neeraj Mishra in ICCU room number 5 is attending to his mother. He apprehended, “There are equipment in the verandah and rats could easily damage the wires and sensitive instruments.”
It’s a nightmare for patients in the general ward. As the rodents race about in the wards, the medicines, eatables, slippers and just about everything turn into food. A rat bit Kamla on bed number 17 twice. Ram Sajivan Tewari too complained about the menace with folded hands. Lajvanti Yadav and Kanti in Mahila Ward showed their marks of rat bite.
Even hospital nurses have been bitten by rats and are living under a threat. Uma the nurses’ president lamented, “Recently, a rat bit a diabetic and it turned into a wound.”
Sanjay Mishra was bitten by a rat few days back. “I have been bitten once, but being a nurse, I knew what to be done (see box). But these patients don’t get themselves vaccinated for ignorance.”
People at the hospital mess too nurse a grudge. Rats have entered the hospital mess. They chew away soaps, salt packets and anything left on the kitchen slab.
Dr DP Mishra of the Balrampur Hospital said, “Any canine can be a carrier of rabies. Rats come in that category.”
Arvind Gupta tried to open the drawer in the ICCU room to see two fat rats inside it. He said, “There is excreta of rat inside the drawer.
