Suicide Series at The AIDS Ward Of A South Indian Hospital

[Guest guest]

Suicide Series at The AIDS Ward Of A South Indian Hospital

- E. Rajarethinam, India

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A hospital that boasts of having treated as many as 43,000 AIDS patients till

date, stood thoroughly exposed in the scorching heat of summer 2002, as a

thriller of three suicides within its campus hit the headlines day after day.

What made the event even more gruesome was the stand-off between the police and

the govt. doctors, as the latter refused to undertake post-mortem on AIDS

infected bodies. Finally the police had to carry the bodies from the south

suburban tips of Chennai to its northern end, where the only Govt. hospitals,

which perform post-mortem on AIDS cases could be located. However the rule of

jurisdiction intervened and even the City Govt. hospital, which otherwise

accepts such post- ortems, sent back the police to the respective suburban

Hospital, the exact revenue division where the suicide had hit.

On the 9th of April, one lorry driver from Karur, Manu [not real name] came all

the way to Chennai, the state capital, to check if he had been a victim of HIV,

a quiet suspicion he had developed lately. Not only Manu, every other HIV

suspect or a well-informed person in South India gets to know the T.B.

Hospital, Chennai, as the most famous institution for the treatment of HIV. The

hospital has an AIDS ward with 40 beds and they claim that they have already

treated 43,000 patients here.

But when Manu was diagnosed as an HIV+, the results were conveyed to

him so casually, that the very same night he threw up a small rope to one

of the numerous dwarf trees sprouting in the vast campus and took his own

life.

The Daily that reported the event concluded with the chilling word,

" since Manu knew before hand that death was the only choice for an AIDS

patient, the shock of the results led him to this logical conclusion " . It's no

wonder then, that starting from the common man, right till certain enlightened

media, people have hardly heard of the possibility of a prolonged life for an

AIDS victim, under the ARV treatment. The Govt. is in fact fooling the common

man, by setting up Hospitals with AIDS wards, where there is a nominal

treatment for the opportunistic infections

alone. No one is allowed to stay for more than ten days here. What's the point

in testing, establishing the CD4 count and keeping the patients under intensive

medical supervision, for a week or so? Are we there to observe and study the

pangs of death, to which most of these people are already condemned by the time

they each these hospitals?

Two days after the first incident, a B.Com graduate from Thiruvannamalai,

hanged himself in the very same AIDS ward. What more powerful message could

there be for NACO and the Indian Government than the hanging body of Manu

right at the roof of the AIDS ward, that it is high time to divert some precious

resources on the victims themselves rather than on endless innovations,

conferences and high profile discussions alone.

Closely on the heel of these events, Mala, 28, [not real name] was desperately

looking for an opportunity in the very same haunted ward, as to when her

beloved husband and her only son (7 years old) would disappear from her sight,

so that she could quietly end her life. The nuclear family had come all the way

from Salem, 400 km away, after a local doctor had declared that she was

positive. They had merely walked out of the campus, to fetch something for her,

when she executed her plan.

" Even after 20 days of intensive treatment, there was no improvement and Mala

hanged herself on another tree of the hospital campus " , reports the regional

newspaper, blissfully ignorant of the fact that the only effective treatment for

AIDS is ot yet offered in govt. hospitals. The doctors closed the register of

Mala with the brief comment that she took this extreme step due to unbearable

stomach pain.

Imagine the father and the son, returning from shopping, only to find the bosom

of their family hanging under a tree, with all the commotion and attention of

the hospital staff and co-patients, pouring upon her, for the first time since

the admission.

Yet another youngster, Vikram [not real name] of Avadi, was fatally hit in the

same Tambaram jurisdiction, two weeks after the chilling series of suicides. He

was taken to the govt. hospital, just next to the famous AIDS hospital. Vikram

was diagnosed as HIV +, something he had never suspected in his life, and he

later succumbed to his injuries. The police appeared on the scene, in order to

dispose off the case. Again they got into deep waters here, as the doctors

refused to perform post-mortem,

on a body diagnosed with HIV.

Even more horrifying was the fact that the relatives of Vikram, refused to

receive the body, 'as it had been infected with the despicable HIV'. The police

was left with no other choice than to carry the body to the city hospital, all

over again, just as they did to the suicide victims earlier.

The report on the Indian Express dated June 1, concludes with the simple

note that the doctors at the suburban hospitals, even refused to comment as to

why they don't take up post-mortem of AIDS patients. It is all right for the new

Indian AIDS policy to insist repeatedly on the rights of AIDS patients for

treatment and care. But when ARV is still an unheard of mystery for the common

people and even a post-mortem is flatly denied by govt. doctors, it is

absolutely clear that the PLWHA have a

stupendous march still to make before their health rights are ticked.

E. Rajarethinam

Global Citizens, India

E-mail: globalcitizens@...

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A cross posting from SEA-AIDS sea-aids@...

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[Guest guest]

Dear Forum subscribers,

This is in response to the message on

" Suicide Series at The AIDS Ward Of A South Indian Hospital "

I think, so many suicides in succession in the same treatement

facility is unheard of. We should try to find out the reasons

leading to the events. We should also try to find out how the

treatment facility cold be strengthened so as to prevent such

deaths. Thanks

Dr Ashok Kumar Agarwal, MBBS,MD

108, Rastraguru Avenue,

Nager Bazar, Kolkata -700028, India

E-mail: " <drashok_1963@...>

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