Rodents again eat away fingers of dead man found near Jamshedpur’s MGMMCH bathroom

Rodents have once again left Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH) authorities red-faced. In a second such incident within four months, rodents ate away fingers of a dead patient found lying near the public tap at the emergency bathroom here on Monday, officials said on Tuesday.

39-year-old Chandrasekhar Sharma was admitted at MGMMCH on Sunday at around 12.30 pm with complaints of blood vomiting. He was spotted lying unconscious near the tap at emergency ward bathroom on Monday morning. Ward staff brought him to emergency ward where attending doctors declared him brought dead.

“Sharma was admitted here on Sunday. He had recovered well by evening. His relatives and attendants left him in the emergency ward during the night. He went missing from his bed at wee hours. Later, emergency staff found him near public tap at the emergency bathroom. They brought him to emergency doctors but died during treatment,” Dr Nakul Prasad Chowdhary, MGMMCH deputy superintendent, told HT on Tuesday.

“Emergency staff told me that rodents had eaten away some of his fingers but his relatives didn’t file any complaint. They took away his body and cremated. Sharma was a chronic alcoholic and was admitted here frequently earlier too. Every time he would run away from the hospital after somewhat recovering,” added Dr Chowdhary.

This is, however, no stray incident as rodents had eaten away the face of a 50-year-old unidentified man who was admitted with serious injuries in MGMMCH by Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel Lalmohan Purty in September this year. His body was found dumped near the toilet in emergency ward next day with rodents damaging his face badly.

Dr Chowdhary said they had carried out rodent control exercise in the hospital after the incident in September. “We have regularly been carrying out pest control exercises in the hospital and had a rodent control exercise soon after the incident in September. Many rats were killed then,” said Dr Chowdhary.

“Work on laying of new sewerage and drainage lines are currently on, leaving trenches and big holes here and there. We will soon undertake rodent control exercise once this sewerage-drainage work is complete,” Dr Chowdhary added.