The place is the largest hospital in the country. A woman has been declared dead and a death certificate too has been issued to that effect. Four hours later, a ward boy comes to the trolley on which the body lies in wait for autopsy before the mortuary. But imagine the ward boy's shock and surprise: the body suddenly opens her eyes and moves. The ward boy runs to the ward where the woman patient had been under treatment for weakness and malnutrition. The woman who did not actually die but lost her consciousness was again admitted to the ward. But then she really died a day later.
The incident saw both sides of the coin. Actually it was the director of the hospital who saw her lying on the footpath before the hospital and ordered to be picked up for treatment. The director did what was to be done in such a case. The woman could count her really fortunate when she received the favour. But her soul also felt disillusioned by what she later confronted at the hands of the medical staff there.
Reports have it that a female doctor issued the death certificate without examining the woman patient. She did so on the basis of another ward boy's assumption, who found her not to breathe. It was the neglect at its worst. Accepted that the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) has to handle pressure of patients twice its capacity. But should it be an excuse for issuing a death certificate without examination to a patient who is still alive? When this can happen, who knows how unmindful physicians and nurses are when they examine patients or prescribe or administer medicines! In medical profession there is no room for luxury to be callous like this because life at times hangs to or from the slenderest of threads. The patient could end up getting cut open by the man responsible for dissection at the morgue if she were delivered there earlier and had not been left for that long.   Â
Now the question is, if this a representative picture of the country's healthcare system or just a sheer exception. It would be better if one could say this is just professional aberration on the part of a single doctor. Sadly, the medical profession is so lucrative for some, particularly the senior and reputed consultants, that they could not care less if they did attend their duty at their duty station or not. Sure enough, to hospitals they come for a round lasting an hour or so. As if they are doing a favour to the government or maybe, patients. Essentially they focus on their personal chamber where they see 30 to 60 patients for fees ranging between Tk 800 to Tk1500.
They never think that it is unethical to skip duty and give time to private practice for income of fabulous sums. The more senior the doctors are the less available they are in their workplace. There are other ill practices like commission for prescribing medicines of certain pharmaceutical companies or suggesting more pathological tests than necessary and those too from diagnostic centres they refer to even if there are more reputed ones the patients can have a choice for.
When all this happens before the very eyes of other staff in a public hospital, the service is sure to downgrade further. Because they too want a share of the extra income in some way or other. It is because, beds are not available for genuine candidates without bribe. Medicines and other materials supposed to be available free of cost disappear and pathological or other tests to be carried out in the hospital are not done but near and dear ones of the patients are compelled to get those done from outside. The list is long indeed.  Â
The profession is sinking under its own weight. When the practitioners themselves feel no qualms about discrediting their profession and lack integrity, ignoble incidents like issuance of a death certificate to a patient still alive are likely to occur.
Declared dead twice over
Nilratan Halder | Published: December 20, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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