Mangalore: There was only chaos and unruly scenes at the Mangala Hospital on September 24, last Saturday, blamed on Sri Rama Sene Volunteers who came in for enquiry at the hospital’s exorbitant bills on a dead patient.
The doctors were accused of deliberately hiding the news of death of Aitha Gowda(59), admitted there on September 11, and diagnosed with rat fever and jaundice.
The diseased patient, Aitha Gowda’s body was not given to the bereaved family until the huge bill was paid, which is opposite of decency and medical manuals in the west coast. The Kadri police had to intervene and establish order in the hospital, and force a compromise on the actual payment due.
The story was in newspapers and the medical men in the hospital stated that Sri Rama Sene members stormed the premises after the death of Aitha, to abuse and took the employers to task over other matters.
The doctors questioned the interfering volunteers on ethics as to what medical qualification they had to sit in judgment over a hopeless case.
The management of the hospital criticised the news writers of creating sensation and hullabaloo, rather than go through medical records and give a factual picture to the angry readers.
Seven doctors had attended on the patient during a week of treatment, doctors pointed out. 43 bottles of blood were given to the patient in 10 days. The doctors rubbished the charge of excessive billing.