Unable to pay stretcher bribe, woman forced to drag hubby for an X-ray

shivamogga (Karnataka) — A poor woman dragged her ailing septuagenarian husband to an Xray room in a state-run hospital in Karnataka’s Shivamogga city after the staff denied her a stretcher after her refusal to pay bribe, an official said on Friday.

The horrifying incident of May 31 came to light after Kannada news channels telecast a video footage on Friday.

“We have suspended nurses Asha, Chaithra, and Jyothi, and attender Suvaranamma for not providing the stretcher to the patient,” McGann Hospital Medical Superintendent T.B. Satyanarayana said.

Shivamogga in the Malnad region is about 310km from the state capital Bengaluru.

In the footage, Fameeda is seen dragging 75-year-old Amir across the hospital’s corridor to the X-ray room from the general ward.

“I had to drag him from the general ward as I could not afford to give Rs50 bribe to the hospital staff,” 65-year-old Fameeda told reporters here.

Amir was admitted to the hospital nine days ago for treatment of bronchitis.

I had to drag him from the general ward as I could not afford to give Rs50 bribe to the hospital staff Fameeda, wife of patient Amir

“As I had no faith in the hospital’s doctors, I wanted to take my husband back home. No doctor bothered to take care of him,” rued Fameeda.

Dubbing the incident shameful and unacceptable, Health Minister K.R. Ramesh Kumar ordered an inquiry into Fammeda’s bribe charge.

“The hospital is not under my control. As it is under Medical Education minister Sharan Prakash Patil, I will tell him to take stringent action against the erring staff,” Kumar told reporters in Bengaluru later in the day.

Many patients admitted at the hospital narrated similar woes. “My nephew was admitted in the hospital last month. Its staff refused to give him a spitoon while he was vomiting,” said homemaker M. Mamatha. —