Friday, September 29, 2006

Death of a medical student



I am shocked at the recent death of a medical student at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Kamalla Raj Kiran was training to be a doctor at AIIMS, where he contracted a disease called "Dengue" and died in the same hospital where he was aspiring to be a doctor.

For those who don't know, Dengue is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes. Where there are no mosquitoes, there is no dengue (except by transfusion of infected blood). Dengue is a preventable disease.

This story essentially highlights the sad state of sanitation at the apex body of health in India. While AIIMS boasts of being the best medical training and research institute in the entire Asian continent, it has failed miserably at more steps than it has succeeded. It can be labeled only as an "irony" that the medical students are asked questions about transmission of Dengue in their professional examinations, but the sanitation authorities at the same place are blind to the answers. Such deaths could be prevented only if there is basic sanitation at AIIMS.

Interestingly, this is not the first time when AIIMS is spreading dengue. Is it about time AIIMS did something about itself?

Yes it is time! But given the current state of politics at AIIMS, where people worry more about themselves rather than the nation itself, I do not expect anything to be done. Especially not when I have seen many doctors committing suicides because of workplace harrassment - harrassments that were prevented from being released in the media or the public. In fact, AIIMS thinks that avian flu is more important than other diseases of national interest, perhaps driven only by the buzzword about avian flu in the west.

I urge the people to do something about such a basic necessity as improving sanitation at AIIMS. Will they do it?

The answer is: No.

They will do it only when they themselves catch Dengue. They will do it only when it benefits only them, and not everyone. Hard to digest? Look at the past.

Long live humanity! Long live health! Long live AIIMS!

Duh!


P.S.: Here's a first person account about this death: (an email from someone at AIIMS)

Today was a very tragic day for all of us. Do you know Kamalla Raj Kiran, currently he was in 7 th Sem... He got Dengue. I went to see him in the morning when B***** told me that platelets are going out of stock in our blood bank. He was taken to Casualty yday night where he deteriorated very rapidly and his disorientation was not taken care of in the casualty. There was a delay of few hours in getting his CT done. That too was done after he passed stools in bed that they suspected CNS involvement. When I went in the morning to C2 ICU, He was on ventilator and all the brain stem reflexes were gone.. I saw the CT... It was pretty bad...
He was brain dead. He is still being supported cardiovascularly in CT2 ICU. I don't know when they will declare him..
And some more students from BSc and MBBS are being admitted in the casualty and ward suspecting of Dengue..
Really bad times at AIIMS!


Update:
I publicized the news across medical schools in India, and also involved one of my friends who works for an Indian TV channel. Finally, media was interested, and the news was covered widely by TV channels in India and BBC 10 hours later. Here's a screenshot from BBC news site: (Click to enlarge)


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

thts the great aiims..huh..institute of national imp..established by an act of parliament..n controlled by this #$%^&*( parliament...no hope nthn...tht place is full of shit..i am an ashamed aiimsonian..i did my mbbs there n i knw this apex institute..all money n research grants go fattening prof. pockets..n u thot they r so kind n large hearted working for peanuts huh...typically if a grant is of 10 lakhs..5 will be pocketed..y ll they care bt health care or student care..the director who claims to be the saviour of humanity..we know waht he is..but of no avail...y not hang that old bastard from a lamp post..no hope wotsoever..
no wonder more than 90 % of mbbs pass out at aiims leave the country..coz we know..if aiims is like this wot to say bt othr places..

Anonymous said...

Till now.. more than 10 students of AIIMS have been admitted with chief complaints of high grade fever to New Private Ward and in the wards. Some of them have thrombocytopenia. I went to the Casualty to see the status and I was really shocked to see the overwhelming crowd in the Emergency ward. There was not a single doctor who could be regarded as relatively free... Clearly there was a lack of manpower which i could see. Many medical students, interns, JRs voluntarily came to the casualty to provide some assistance.. which they did to some extent. I was one of them.. We shifetd some students to wards, took their samples and arranged for supportive measures.
Some students were admitted in the New Private Ward. AIIMS JRs along with other medical students were also present there. Since you all know that in the Pvt ward, residents are not present routinely so all the monitoring was being done by us along with some interns. One BSc student started going into shock. fluids were started immediately and he was immediately shifted to the C2 ICU after calling the concerned SR.
Thanks to the dedication of the students, interns that we can say that we are one single family and we won't let anything break this family.
Lastly, I want to make an appeal to all of you who will be reading this that please make sure that you donate blood as soon as possible since there are expectations that the affected are going to need more of blood products and we would not want anyone suffering due to lack of resources...
Thanks
An AIIMSONIAN

Anil Kumar said...

Alexander "The Great" conquered a major portion of earth that was known in his times. His conquest brought him to India, where he had to die... of a mosquito bite.

It's amazing we haven't cleared our sh*t since the last 2500 years. Mosquitoes still kill... at least in India.

Sad sad sad...!

I'm glad for one thing though... mosquitoes can't spread AIDS... otherwise imagine...

Anonymous said...

Huh!! It's all s**t. We are Indian and we have to be proud on ourself. Why you peoples are going very emotional. No need of it. We cannot do anything, we don't have rights. If you are talking about rights, then keep f**king u'r self.
I'm also facing too much of problem in India and not willing to be called Indian. It's shame of me. Many times I tried to raise my voice what happened, I f**ked myself. We have to just pay the TAXES... TAXES... and TAXES. And keep quite, if you try to raise voice u'll be f**ked by Law of India. Isn't it great.
Income Tax + VAT + Service Tax and still this pathetic condition in India.
Proud to be an India. heeeeee...

An Indian.

Anonymous said...

its alright to be angry and cursing wen such horrible events happen, i admit i had no idea what the circumstances were when kamalla died, but if i assume what u say is correct, that will not be much surprising either. we all know the state of casualty, but i had always imagined profs do take care fo their own students, n whos knows probably they did. all i want to say now is that, may god not take any other life in such a disgusting way!!!

Anonymous said...

Dengue in AIIMS is really hitting to its worse. The number of ppl sick from dengue is increasing day by day. N***** was diagnosed to have low platelet count. He is fine though.
N******* is admitted to private ward. He is admitted for different reason though. He has low BP. I dont know what was the reason for his shock........I deliverd him one cigarette in ward because he was craving badly.......lol....his BP is fine now.
Many juniors are admitted because of dengue. The platelet count fall drastically within one day. So nothing can be predicted. The best approach is that have a close look on platelet count. If possible, twice a day.
I dont know what is happening to AIIMS, this institute has seen many rise and falls, but this is definetely fall of AIIMS.
God bless all and this institute.