I am ashamed of this India Born and brought up in India has given me patriotic liberty. I can be at the same time be a proud Indian but there are incidences which make me bow my head in shame. I feel helpless, ineffective and angry when I read about such realities which can and should be changed but the people responsible are totally indifferent.

When Sova Rani was admitted to SSKM hospital in Kolkata, the state premier hospital she was confident that she will be treated for her tumours in the joints of her right hand and she will be cured and be home accordingly.

She was advised biopsy which was scheduled for next day. She felt asleep and woke up feeling a sharp piercing pain in her right hand. Thinking it might be time for another injection she opened her eyes, but could not see any Doctor or nurse but what she saw was terrifying. A big fat rat was biting her hand. She screamed in pain and terror, the rat scurried away but she could not sleep after that. Other patients were also alerted.

Her hand was swollen next day. When her family members came to visit her they were also horrified and decided to report the matter to the hospital authorities, but from Saturday afternoon till Monday her son-in-law could not complain because there was no hospital authority available who was ready to hear his complain. Finally he left it in the Hospital Superintendent’s Office.

This is not the first incidence of patients being bitten by pests. In November 2005, 55-year-old Gouri Rani Chakraborty died at Shambhunath Pandit Hospital after ants ate away her recently operated eye. On April 20, 2008, a newborn’s eyes were nibbled by rats, leaving the baby scarred.

What is more worrying is that Hospital authorities are passing the buck by saying that since repair work is being carried out in hospital premises rats have come out in the open.

But rats can cause rabies, Rat droppings can carry any number of viral and bacterial infections, including hantavirus, plague, typhus, leptospirosis and meningitis.

What is alarming is that being a government hospital patients from all strata of society come here for treatment, most of them cannot afford to go any where else.

Is life of such patients so cheap that even rodents have been given the right to decide their fate.