Gujarat: Family smells rat as former secretary dies in government hospital

GANDHINAGAR: The death of an 83-year-old former bureaucrat of the state government raked up a major controversy at Gandhinagar Civil Hospital on Monday as his family members claimed the man died from a rat bite in the hospital. The hospital authorities refuted the claim and said that excessive bleeding could have taken place due to accidental injury.
The former bureaucrat’s family is adamant on getting postmortem done to unearth the cause of death. While the Sector 7 police station took cognizance of the case, police officials said that no formal complaint had been filed as on Monday night.
Bhatt’s daughter Dipti told TOI that the family spotted the bleeding from his left eye at 5.30am on Monday. “We immediately called the doctor on duty. The doctor could not decide on stitching the injury, claiming that it could have been caused by a rat bite and thus stitching could not be done. There was also no clarity on the extent of injury on his retina,” she said. “Helpless, I and my sister literally kept collecting the free-flowing blood for next three hours. When the hospital authorities realized chances of survival had been lost, they stitched the injury,” she added.
Dipti said Bhatt, former deputy director at the department of economics and statistics of government of Gujarat, had not been keeping well for the past few days and after severe kidney infection, he was admitted to the Civil Hospital on June 30.
“He was critical, and we knew it. But we were hoping for the best. This week, we were going to celebrate 50 years of his wedding – a love marriage in those times. He lived his life, but our problem is with the hospital – why didn’t they decide on course of treatment? Why did we have to see him suffer like that?” asked Dipti.
“My sister has spotted rats in the ICU where he was kept and the staff can also vouch for the same,” Dipti said, adding that she intends to take the issue to the health minister so that no other life is lost like this in the state capital of one of the most developed states of India.
When contacted, Dr Niyati Lakhani, medical superintendent of Gandhinagar Civil Hospital, refuted the claim of rat bite. “There are no marks anywhere else and we have not seen any incident where a rat might have bitten an eye. Closer inspection of the injury on the eye revealed that the upper lid of left eye had abrasion and retina had no injury.”
Dr Lakhani said, “It could have occurred due to accidental brushing of the pulse oxymeter fixed on his finger. He was a heart patient with history of angioplasty. Thus, he was taking blood-thinning medicines and it was the reason for the excessive bleeding,” she said.