Grief hung heavy in the modest house with its bare floor and unplastered walls. Outside, a few anxious faces looked up as Navami, 20, stepped out, flanked by her ageing grandmother Seethamma. Her father, Vishruthan, sat silently on a chair nearby, eyes brimming.With a heavy heart, Navami bid a quiet goodbye and walked up the flight of steps leading to the road, where a car waited to take her to the Government Medical College Hospital, Kottayam. She looked back at her house before getting into the waiting vehicle, as memories of her mother refused to leave their home.
Navaneeth and Navami, children of Bindu, grieving in front of their mother’s body.
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Navami, a final-year B.Sc. nursing student is heading in for surgery. And it is her second attempt. The first trip was on July 1 with her mother, D. Bindu, by her side. But that hospital stay was tragically cut short. Just three days later, on the morning of July 3, a dilapidated bathroom block in the hospital collapsed. Bindu, who was the caregiver for her daughter, was trapped under the rubble. It took over two hours to retrieve her body. By then, she was dead.The tragedy triggered a political firestorm as the building had been deemed unsafe for over a decade. Opposition parties took to the streets pointing out that patients were forced to use it because of a lack of facilities. After the incident, the bulldozer could not reach the spot on time to rescue Bindu; they pointed out, clashing with the police, demanding the resignation of Kerala Health Minister Veena George.Accusations flew thick and fast, only to be met with equally forceful counterclaims. But in Navami’s home, there was no appetite for blame games. For the family, nothing mattered more than the devastating truth that Bindu was no more.“They all came. Ministers, party leaders, and the District Collector. They consoled us and gave us assurances. That means something, yes… but we’ve lost her,” says Vishruthan, his voice heavy with sorrow.Ahead of her return to the hospital, a team of doctors visited Navami to provide counselling. The young woman, who has already been assessed by neurologists and orthopaedics, will go under the knife shortly.Amidst the outrage and questions over administrative failures, the disturbing question that emerges is what ails the State’s famed Kerala model of health care. Questions are being asked with renewed vigour about patient safety, quality of health-care, ageing infrastructure, and shortage of manpower in government medical college hospitals (MCH) across the State.Public health experts fear that underinvestment in the infrastructure sector and human resources is finally taking its toll. A recent social media post of Haris Chirackal, Head of the Department of Urology of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, on the shortage of facilities at the hospital and the resultant sufferings of patients had grabbed the headlines.
