TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR old Krishna (name changed) was admitted to the Gandhi ward of King George’s Medical University last Monday in a serious condition.
He was semi-conscious and constantly vomiting. Till Wednesday morning, he was not attended by any doctor. He was not given even the primary treatment.
Reason— he is an HIV positive person. Doctors attended the patient only when this news came out of the ward through a representative of an NGO, Ummeed (working with PLHAs), Balbir Singh who himself admitted the patient to the hospital. When questioned by the NGO, hospital staff, including the doctors on duty reportedly manhandled the NGO representative and abused the patient and attendants.
Singh alleged that the patient’s condition has deteriorated because of the delay in treatment. Even the patient’s primary test— that is called CD4 count— has not been conducted which is essential for deciding the line of treatment for any HIV positive person.
He also alleged that the doctors on duty harassed the patient’s attendants by asking them to do the personal works of the former.
Krishna’s wife said that her husband had not been taken care by any of the doctors. Ward boys don’t even change his dirty bed sheets for fear of the disease. “We were treated as if we are untouchables”, added she. However, the in-charge of Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) Centre, Dr AK Tripathi denied all allegations and said there were six other HIV patients in the ward and everyone has been taken care of.
{{/usCountry}}Krishna’s wife said that her husband had not been taken care by any of the doctors. Ward boys don’t even change his dirty bed sheets for fear of the disease. “We were treated as if we are untouchables”, added she. However, the in-charge of Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) Centre, Dr AK Tripathi denied all allegations and said there were six other HIV patients in the ward and everyone has been taken care of.
{{/usCountry}}In this particular case, we wanted the patient to be stabilised first before starting the main treatment. CD4 test and ART are not the primary treatment for any patient having HIV. Today all his test samples have been taken and he has been given the primary treatment, added Tripathi. He could not give any satisfactory answer when asked that why these tests have not been done before.