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Mentally Ill Woman Dragged Around Arrah Hospital In Bihar After She Was Denied A Stretcher

The hospital has, however, denied having received any request for a stretcher.
ANI

BIHAR -- Bhojpur district's only hospital certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Arrah is continuously in news these days for raking up controversies.

In an unfortunate incident, a mentally challenged woman was dragged around by her relatives in the Sadar Hospital's premises in search of a stretcher, on Wednesday.

On being questioned about the matter, the hospital administration said 32-year-old Shakuntala Devi is mentally disturbed therefore every now and then she tries to escape the building.

The hospital has, however, denied having received any request for a stretcher, which it said was available.

The woman's husband Anil Shah said his wife had to be taken to the Out-Patient Department (OPD) for administering an injection.

His request to the paramedical staff for a stretcher was turned down saying the hospital did not have one available.

"I was left with no option therefore I requested a hospital staff and a female attendant of another patient to carry my wife back to the ward," said Shah.

"There is no reason why a patient admitted to a ward, will be taken to the OPD for administering an injection. The patient had wandered into the OPD. Her husband, with the help of some others, held her by her limbs and brought her back to the ward. We never received any request for a stretcher, which we have aplenty," Hospital deputy superintendent Dr. Satish Kumar Sinha said.

Devi was admitted to the medical ward of the Arrah Sadar Hospital four days back when she developed complications related to her mental illness.

However, this is not the first incident which has come into light. Earlier in the month, four pregnant women were carried on a single stretcher in a state government hospital in Karnataka's Hubli district.

When questioned to speak on the incident, Superintendent Dr. Shivappa Anur Shetty said, "There's no shortage of stretchers, it's only the inability of hospital staff to manage them accordingly."

Last year, in a shocking incident, a woman was forced to drag her ailing husband on the ramp of a government hospital in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district after hospital staff allegedly expressed their inability to provide her a stretcher.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.