A 24-year-old man died due to his illness a day after a rat nibbled on the eye of the patient in the ICU of BMC-run Rajawadi hospital. While the incident happened on Tuesday, the man died yesterday. Shrinivas Nagesh Yallapa was admitted in the hospital on Sunday and was on ventilator support. While the exact amount of injury caused to his eye is not known yet, hospital superintendent Dr Vidya Thakur stated that the patient’s eyesight was not damaged due to the incident.
Doctors at the hospital said the patient was in very critical condition and was suffering from alcoholic liver disease. Yallapa was hospitalized following respiratory issues and was also diagnosed with brain and liver damage. He was later shifted to the ICU where a rat nibbled his left eye.
According to reports, the Rajawadi Hospital said that the patient was in an unconscious state when brought to the hospital. Yallapa was suffering from ARLD, his health parameters were unstable and his haemoglobin was around 1.
Staff alleged that Rajawadi hospital has been facing neglect for a long time. He claimed that the superintendent has been requesting funds to repair the hospital for the last five years. He alleged that the BMC has not been sanctioning enough funds for the hospital despite Rajawadi being one of the biggest in the eastern suburbs.
On Tuesday, Mayor Kishori Pednekar visited the patient after the incident. She also held a meeting of hospital staffers and said that the authorities would deploy a team of rat-catchers every night to stop such incidents.
In 2017 as well, rats had nibbled on two patients at Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali.
Last month, a rat had nibbled a newborn child’s feet in a government-run hospital in Madhya Pradesh. Earlier this month, rats had bitten a dead body kept in the post-mortem room of Indore District Hospital in the state.