(Representative image)

MUMBAI: In a telling comment on hygiene at civic-run peripheral hospitals, two senior citizens undergoing treatment at the Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal General Hospital, Kandivli, were left injured after rats bit them. The two incidents, in a span of ten days, have put the spotlight on the menace of rodent infestation, and the patchy efforts undertaken in public hospitals to tackle it.

Borivli resident Pramila Nerulkar was bitten by a rat in the left eye as she lay sedated in the female ward on the first floor of the hospital. The 68-year-old was admitted to the hospital on September 29 after she suffered a stroke. Her son Ratnakar said the incident happened on October 3 night, when his mother was sleeping. But what angered the family even more was that the hospital allegedly made them pay for the treatment of the rat bite injury.

Nerulkar’s injured eye has now been bandaged. “There was a tube inside my mother’s nose and she could barely move her hands. Thankfully, my sister-in-law was around when the rat bit her inside the eye. Hearing my mother scream, she switched on the light and found a rat scurrying away,” Ratnakar said. “She had difficulty in opening the eye. We will know the extent of damage once the bandage is removed,” he added

Hospital superintendent Dr Pradip Angre called it an “unfortunate incident” but denied that Nerulkar was bitten in the eye. “She has suffered an injury on the eyelid. The ophthalmologist has treated her and has ruled out vision damage,” he said.

Angre confirmed that Nerulkar’s case was the second in ten days. Shantaben Jadhav (71), a patient of diabetes and hypertension, was bitten on the right foot on Sunday morning. The woman was admitted to the hospital for a leg fracture. In this case too, Angre claimed that the injuries inflicted by the rodent were not serious.

Criticizing the dismal state of Shatabdi hospital, BJP MLA Manisha Choudhary on Monday sent a letter to civic chief Ajoy Mehta. She said she had received complaints from several patients. The Dahisar MLA said, “Two patients were bitten by a rat and were left with injuries. This is unacceptable for a city which boasts of such a huge financial budget. The civic administration needs to take serious note of the poor condition of civic hospitals.”

Angre said while rat menace was not new to the hospital —at least three-four cases have been reported over the last three years— the situation has aggravated in the last 15-20 days. “The pest control department is urgently working on it. One of the problems is also that food consumed by patients is often lying on beds, attracting rats,” he said.

Choudhary also highlighted that owing to Borivali ’s Bhagwati Municipal General Hospital being shut for the last four years, the burden of patients, who would otherwise go to Bhagwati hospital, was now on Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal General Hospital.

