Bihar: Mentally challenged woman dragged around in Arrah Hospital, no stretchers available

Bhojpur district's one and only hospital certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Arrah is continuously in news these days for raking up controversies.

In an unfortunate incident, a mentally challenged woman was dragged around by her relatives in the Sadar Hospital's premises in search of a stretcher, here on Wednesday.

On being questioned about the matter, the hospital administration said 32-year-old Shakuntala Devi is mentally disturbed therefore every now and then she tries to escape the building.

The hospital has, however, denied having received any request for a stretcher, which it said was available.

The woman's husband Anil Shah said his wife had to be taken to the Out-Patient Department (OPD) for administering an injection.

His request to the paramedical staff for a stretcher was turned down saying the hospital did not have one available.

"I was left with no option therefore I requested a hospital staff and a female attendant of another patient to carry my wife back to the ward," said Shah.

"There is no reason why a patient admitted to a ward, will be taken to the OPD for administering an injection. The patient had wandered into the OPD. Her husband, with the help of some others, held her by her limbs and brought her back to the ward. We never received any request for a stretcher, which we have aplenty," Hospital deputy superintendent Dr. Satish Kumar Sinha said.

Devi was admitted to the medical ward of the Arrah Sadar Hospital four days back when she developed complications related to her mental illness.

However, this is not the first incident which has come into light. Earlier in the month, four pregnant women were carried on a single stretcher in a state government hospital in Karnataka's Hubli district.

When questioned to speak on the incident, Superintendent Dr. Shivappa Anur Shetty said, "There's no shortage of stretchers, it's only the inability of hospital staff to manage them accordingly."

Last year, in a shocking incident, a woman was forced to drag her ailing husband on the ramp of a government hospital in Andhra Pradeh's Anantapur district after hospital staff allegedly expressed their inability to provide her a stretcher.