What could be worse than lying, paralyzed, in a hospital bed in India? Rats

JODHPUR: A 70-year-old paralytic patient, admitted in the ICU of a government hospital, was bitten by rats. The incident happened at Jodhpur's Mathura Das Mathur Hospital on Tuesday. 

Mohammad Iqbal suffered rat bites on his face and ears. Attendants, who were fast asleep, woke up on hearing a glass crash to the floor. "We saw some rats running around and realised that the patient's lips, nose, eye-lids and ears were cut and bleeding. The ventilator tube, attached to his neck, was also cut,'' said an attendant. They soon alerted the senior staff, who immediately attended to Iqbal. 

The hospital administration didn't confirm the incident but superintendent Arvind Mathur said on Wednesday that a three-member committee has been formed to probe the matter. "The report will be submitted by the committee on Thursday and we will know if it is a case of rat-bite. We have taken some temporary steps to keep away the rats,'' he said. 

Show cause notices have also been served to the nursing superintendent, the staff on duty, the sweeper and cleaning staff. Rodent control team from the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) was also invited to visit the hospital and suggest an action plan to control the rodents in the hospital.

Rat-menace isn't new to patients of the government hospitals in Jodhpur. Rats are found everywhere including the operation theatres and the ICU wards. In 2009, a new-born child died after being bitten by a rat in the natal ward of the Umaid Hospital. This led to the suspension of two doctors and a nurse.

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