IT News
Imphal, Oct 23:
A teenage boy has lost his life after he was brought for drug overdose treatment but denied entry at Thoubal district hospital on October 20, 2020.
A teenage boy (drug overdose) who was brought to Thoubal district hospital for treatment died on October 20 after the hospital authority denied treatment, alleged CoNE , an NGO working for the welfare of substance abusers.
President of CoNE, Nalinikanta Rajkumar said that the tragic incident happened when the government has issued strict instructions to all government and private hospitals to entertain all emergency patients seeking treatment following cases of unwanted and unfortunate incidents.
The teenager has been identified as one Mutum Nelson (16), s/o M Shyam and M Premila of Thoubal Kiyam. He was an international martial artist who had received accolades of national and international repute.
Addressing media persons at the Keishamthong Hodam Leirak, Sega Road office of Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE), CoNE President RK Nalinikanta informed that Mutum Nelson was brought at Thoubal district hospital for drug overdose treatment by his family members on October 20 at around 1:00 pm. As they reached the hospital and entered the casualty, they were stopped by security personnel deployed at the hospital. The security personnel told them that since a doctor of the hospital has been detected with COVID-19, the area has been sanitized and as such no one is allowed to enter the hospital premises for any reason whatsoever. Before providing any opportunity to give them the reason for visiting the hospital to the patient family, the security personnel denied treatment at the hospital and asked them to leave immediately.
As they had no other option they left the hospital and went home and contacted an NGO working in the field of drugs after which the staff of the NGO arrived at the house of the victim after a gap of about four hours but could not save the teenager even after administering three ampoules of Naloxone, Nalinikanta added.
Condemning the attitude of all concerned while dealing patients at the time of coronavirus outbreak, RK Nalinikanta said that it has been learnt from previous incidents that health care service providers has been taking undue advantage of the covid-19 pandemic and denying basic health services to the most needy people thereby leading to untimely and unwanted deaths which is very unfortunate.
When CoNE made an inspection visit at the hospital, it was found that there was no stock of Naloxone at the casualty which was supposed to keep the lifesaving drug round the clock. On further investigation, the drug was found stored at the ART centre. Usually, the drug is to be indented from the ART centre by the casualty department as an when there is shortage of the drug, RK Naliniknata said while adding that this clearly indicates the lack of coordination among the line departments of the hospital and complete system failure.
Nalinikanta while also expressing deep regret over the incident said that though such cases has been worsened by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the matter could have been the same as the system has completely failed. Therefore, all the concerned department including the health department and Manipur State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) need to look into the issue with seriousness and the staff concerned should have better coordination so that such incidents do not recur.
Moreover, the coronavirus outbreak should not be the reason to deny access to health care services to all those who need treatment for other ailments and emergencies, Nalinikanta said.
