Denial of treatment: CM Pinarayi Vijayan vows justice for Murukan

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday promised strict action against those responsible for denying treatment to the person from Tirunelveli who later succumbed to his injuries. In a Facebook post the chief minister said that the health service director has been directed to conduct preliminary probe into the matter to find out what went wrong.  The death of Murukan was extremely painful.

The chief minister said after receiving the report from the DHS, the government would take corrective measures and put in a pace an effective system  to ensure that such incidents do not take place in future.    He said since denial of treatment to a patient was a criminal offence, cases have been registered against hospitals which had refused to treat the patient.

Yet no vehicle to take him back home

A day after the tragic death of Murukan waiting for treatment for almost eight hours in an ambulance, a government hospital on Tuesday denied vehicle to his family to take his body home. His wife Murugammal, son Gokul, brother-in-law Kannan and a ward member Muthu reached the Kollam District Hospital where his body was kept in its mortuary. Eyewitnesses said the ambulance driver who was present when they arrived in the morning parked the vehicle behind the MRI building. They were told one of the ambulances was under repair and the other went out on duty. 

Meanwhile, the hospital authorities denied the allegation and said the family did not contact them. The DYFI area committee later offered them their ambulance to carry the body to their hometown of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. They also extended a cash assistance of Rs 10,000. Murukan’s body was taken to Thiruvananthapuram MCH for autopsy and then to his hometown. According to the relatives, he had contacted the family an hour before he met with the accident, by 9 pm on Sunday night. He was expected to reach home on Monday to take part in a local temple festival. He had come to Kerala two weeks back. 

The 37-year-old was gravely injured in a bike accident at Chathannoor, and he died the next morning after hospitals allegedly turned him away as he had no money. The police had registered cases against Medicity Medical College, Azeezia Medical College, Meditrina Hospital, all in Kollam, and SUT Royal Hospital and Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in the state capital for medical negligence under IPC 304 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. 

The State Human Rights Commission has also registered a suo-moto case. The police booked them after verifying CCTV visuals and sought reports from these hospitals for denying emergency care. KIMS Kollam, meanwhile, clarified that primary life support treatment was never denied to Murukan.  After ensuring that the patient was under basic life support, he was further referred to the MCH Trivandrum as its neurosurgeon was on leave. Due to the non-availability of the in-house ICU ambulance, an external ambulance with ICU facility was called in to transfer the patient.

SUT hospital denies allegations

SUT hospital in Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram, in a press release clarified that Murukan, the Tamil worker who died without proper treatment, was never brought to the hospital. The hospital was responding to the media reports that though the worker was brought to the hospital for emergency care, he was not admitted.