In a case of a horrible medical negligence, the family of a 27-year-old comatose patient has claimed that a rat nibbled at the patient’s right at the civic-run Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care Municipal Hospital in Jogeshwari, Mumbai. The incident took place on April 23 in a general ward of the hospital where the patient is admitted. However, the hospital authorities have denied the incident, alleging that the ‘fictitious’ complaint was made at the ‘behest of a doctor’ and was a ‘conspiracy’ to malign the hospital, as per Times of India reports.

The patient Parminder Gupta, a Thane resident, fell of his two-wheeler and felt a sudden numbness in his forearm which prompted him to visit Highland Hospital in Thane. Doctors at the private hospital diagnosed a blood clot in the brain. His sister Nirmala said, “The doctors operated upon him to remove the clot. But he has remained in a comatose condition since the surgery on March 8.” As the bill ran up to more than Rs six lakhs after nearly 40 days of hospital stay, the family decided to the shift him to the BMC-run hospital.

The sister claimed the incident took place after the patient was shifted to a general ward on the ninth floor on Sunday night from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) room. The patient’s sister alleged that her uncle had also claimed that there was a rat infestation in the general ward and he had tried to shoo away the rats twice during the night. According to Hindustan Times reports, Parminder’s father Ram said that he had been sitting at the bedside on early Monday morning when he noticed rats roaming in the room. “I shooed the rat away twice, but after a while, I could not stay awake due to the overnight watch over my son and fell asleep for a minute. Within that time, the rat came and bit him inside the eye.” Parminder’s sister added, “There was blood all over his face, clothes, bed and blanket. The doctor asked us to buy tetanus injection.

According to reports, the patient was shifted back to ICU after the horrific incident. Meanwhile, hospital authorities refuted the allegation with ophthalmology department and the doctor treating the patient, claiming that the bite marks did not indicate that the patient was bit by the rat. “Rat infestation is a problem in the hospital, but no such incident took place. We checked the patient but didn’t find any bite marks. An ophthalmologist too checked for injuries in the eye, but nothing was visible,” medical superintendent Dr. HS Bawa told the Times of India.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 29, 2018 09:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).