Bhopal: A ghastly sight of ants savoring eyes of a dead man witnessed in a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district has sparked furore leading Chief Minister Kamal Nath to order a probe into the incident.
The horrific image of ants creeping on the face and eyes of the deceased, identified as Balchand Lodhi (45), has gone viral triggering indignation in the state.
The incident took place in the district hospital at Shivpuri.
Five hospital workers, including a doctor and three nurses, were suspended for dereliction of duty leading to the shocking incident, a spokesman of state government said on Wednesday.
According to official reports, the deceased Balchand, a tuberculosis patient, was admitted to hospital on Tuesday morning and succumbed to disease five hours later.
The body, however, lay on the bed for five hours.
Later, patients in the hospital ward informed widow of the deceased about the death of her husband.
She, however, was shocked when she found ants crawling on the eyes of the body after she removed the cloth from its face. She then started removing the ants from the eyes of the body, an eyewitness accounts said.
“It is gruesome sight that will haunt me for the rest of my life. No hospital staff had bothered to hand over the body to kin of the deceased or remove the body from the ward,” a patient admitted in the hospital ward said.
The Chief Minister on Wednesday took serious note of the incident, saying, “It is highly insensitive that the ants were creeping on the dead patient at a district hospital in Shivpuri. Such incidents are a shame for humanity and cannot be tolerated. I have ordered an enquiry and strong action will be taken against the erring staff of hospital”.
