Patients from hell

Errant prisoners have put doctors treating them at the city's state-run Sir JJ Hospital, at wit's end

Patients from hell

Errant prisoners have put doctors treating them at the city's state-run Sir JJ Hospital, at wit's endu00a0

The jail ward in a hospital is a difficult place to be -- not for the prisoner alone, but for doctors too. So say the doctors at Sir JJ Hospital in Byculla, where prisoners like Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, are being treated. The accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast refuses to be treated for a long list of illnesses.

An exterior shot of the jail ward, dedicated to treating prisoners, at Sir
JJ Hospital. Pic/Rane Ashish

Said the hospital's dean, Dr T P Lahane, "According to the court order, we have admitted Thakur. But she is not allowing our doctors to even examine her. She has asked for private Ayurvedic doctors, but we cannot allow doctors working outside the hospital to treat patients here."

An Ayurvedic medicine enthusiast, Thakur was undergoing treatment at Podar Ayurvedic Hospital in Worli but was transferred three weeks ago, after the doctors there claimed that she needed to undergo surgery for spondylosis. But according to doctors at the hospital, Thakur refuses to take any medical advice from them.

"We will write to the court and request to shift her to an Ayurvedic hospital, since she is occupying a bed that could be used by another patient who really needs it," said Dr Lahane.

Thakur's lawyer Ganesh Sovani said, "Sadhvi had pleaded the court that although she is admitted at Sir JJ Hospital, she would get treated by Ayurvedic doctors. Since she's currently taking medicines provided to her by doctors from Podar Hospital, she is not seeking treatment from the doctors there."

Jail ward
Since Thakur requires constant monitoring, she has been in ward 6 for three weeks, under guard by the Mumbai police. To treat other prisoners, the hospital also has a dedicated prison ward, which is closely guarded by several police officials. The ward is always locked and only open to the hospital's doctors. If a doctor wants to enter the ward, he needs to make an entry and mention the details of the treatment being dispensed." The prison ward follows all the norms of a regular jail, but the prisoners are treated as patients," said another senior doctor on condition of anonymity.

Hellraiser no. 2
Another infamous patient at the ward is Jaya Chedda -- accused of murdering her ex-husband, 'Matka King' Suresh Bhagat. She was admitted to the hospital from the private-run Jaslok Hospital on October 2, 2010, following a court order.

According to the doctors, 46 year-old Chedda has undergone obesity surgery earlier and is currently suffering from urinary tract infection. A senior doctor from the hospital said on condition of anonymity, "Chedda has a catheter attached to her body, because she is unable to pass urine. She has also been diagnosed with a fibroid for which she will undergo a hysterectomy (uterus removal)."

Though Chedda does not throw tantrums -- she is not physically active owing to her persisting illnesses -- a doctor from the hospital said, "If the patient stays any longer, the doctors could be suspected of taking favours from her."

Difficult patients
Said Dr Lahane, "It's a difficult task to handle prisoners. They approach us with various special requests and unnecessarily pressurise the doctorsu00a0 and hospital administration. But if the patient is really ill, irrespective of their prisoner status, we will treat the patient as a human being first."