Delhi hospital 'diseased' too when Dengue takes a toll

, Oct 1: The harrowing experience of a patient at Delhi's Safdarjung

forces one to think whether the state capital's infrastructure is efficient enough to deal with the rising crisis of

.

While the toll in New Delhi has already reached the 2,000 mark, it is really a matter of great concern when the hospital beds are insufficient, the doctors incapable and the hospitals understaffed. That is not all, Amit Mitra (name changed on request), reveals the sorry state of affairs at the hospital premises.

Burning with fever, I was asked to take my own blood samples to the lab

A week ago he suffered from high fever and complained of body ache when he was taken to the Safdarjung hospital. Surprisingly, there was no bed available and he was made to sit on a bench when blood samples were taken for tests. Till that point it was manageable, but things started taking an unfavorable turn when he was asked to take his own samples to the lab for the tests as nobody was available to do so. "I did not have a proper place to rest and was holding the saline bottle in hand.

"There were channels all over and I was asked to take my own sample to the lab."

Hospital beds were unavailable

"I was waiting for a bed since 8:30 am, but was not given one. Finally, I did get one but had to share it with a snake bite patient at first and then three others later," recounts Mitra. By 11 am, his blood reports were ready, which showed clear signs of Dengue with the plateletes count falling to 11,000. But, that did not stop the doctors from asking him to help them hold the snake bite patient!

"Why don't you help us old him tight. Can't you see he is convulsing? I was aghast at the type of unsympathetic treatment I was meted upon," said Mitra. Mitra alleges that his condition had worsened with time and he had to ASK for a saline replacement when the one he was holding had finished. The doctors finally examined him, concluding that he needed blood, but that again had to be collected either by the patient's family or by a peon appointed by the hospital.

"The peon, however, refused to go to the blood bank until he did not have 10 requests at a time," said Mitra.

"It was 3:30 pm by the that time and we could not wait anymore. I could feel my condition and decided that I would shift to a different hospital with better facilities.Surprisingly, the hospital authorities did not have any problems with that too. When I asked them to remove the channels so that I can travel, they told me bluntly that I will have to take them with me as there was no one to do so," said Mitra.

The channels were taken out, but after a lot of requests. Mitra was shifted to a different hospital and his blood samples revealed a blood plateletes fall to a dangerous level of 7,000.

"It was not the disease that bothered me, but the entire state of affairs and the bitter experience that took a toll on my health," said Mitra.