Bihar: Skeletons found outside hospital where children died of encephalitis
Off late, Bihar is in the news for all the wrong reasons. In the last few days, acute encephalitis took the lives of 139 kids in the state. Most of the children were treated at state-run SKMCH in Muzaffarpur. While the mood was already gloomy, tensions rose in the hospital on Saturday after human skeletons were found outside the facility. Here's what happened.
Skeletons were stuffed into sacks, left in open
The skeletal remains were found in a forest. Reportedly, hundreds of skeletons were left on the ground or stuffed into sacks. Speaking on the development, Janak Paswan, the caretaker of SKMCH said, "After postmortem, all the bodies are dumped in the forest behind the hospital. I never tried to ask the authorities about these skeletons." Notably, the dead bodies were neither buried nor cremated.
Superintendent said hospital shouldn't have dumped the bodies like this
After the skeletons were found, an investigation team of SKMCH along with cops visited the spot. Superintendent SK Shahi said it is really inhumane if postmortem department dumped the bodies in the area after the process. Shahi explained that after a dead body arrives at the hospital, authorities are bound to inform the police. The corpse stays at the postmortem room for 72 hours.
Postmortem department is responsible for burying and cremating body: Shahi
Further, Shahi said authorities try to get in touch with the kin of deceased for 72 hours. In case, no one from the family turns up, it is the duty of the postmortem department to burn or bury the body. "The postmortem department takes care of the dead bodies. We will ask their department head to call an inquiry regarding the matter," he added.
Meanwhile, SKMCH is dealing with encephalitis problem without proper resources
On a related note, utter chaos has taken over SKMCH. The facility is dealing with the encephalitis problem, and it doesn't have the resources. For the uninitiated, Acute encephalitis syndrome or AES is a neurological disorder which affects the brain. Its symptoms include high fever, headache, light-sensitivity, vomiting, confusion, seizures, paralysis, and it has been killing malnourished children in Bihar for days now.
At SKMCH, patients share bed, relatives stay on floor
Since the government hospital doesn't have an adequate number of beds, sick kids are being forced to share beds. Meanwhile, their relatives are finding space on the floor. However, as the number of cases is increasing, even floor space had become a luxury for troubled kin. To ensure that no more inconvenience is caused, police aren't allowing media-persons to enter the hospital.
