Gunasekaran and his family had undergone depression upon hearing the devastating news of death of his 85-year-old father, who had been admitted to the Government Royapettah Hospital, on Monday morning. However, this wasn’t the end of their mental trauma. Because the lift was not functioning, they faced a lot of difficulty in shifting the body out to their vehicle.
48-year-old Gunasekaran, a resident and an employee of Royapettah, told that his father was in the general ward for men on the third floor and that the lift there was not functioning since Sunday.
When the family wanted to take the body home for their family rites, the lift suddenly stopped working.
He added, “We went to the adjacent block that has the emergency ward. But the lift there was also not functioning due to some maintenance work. The lift looked rickety and as if it had been installed decades ago”.
At last the family had left with no other choice and they had to bring the body to the ground floor right from the third floor through the staircase. “We kept his body wrapped in a bed sheet and four of us carried it to the ground floor. I wanted to complain about it to the Resident Medical Officer there, but was running short of time as I had to take my father’s body home,” he grieved.
When inquired, another visitor to the hospital narrated about how an injured man had to walk up the stairs carrying a bottle of blood.
“I saw at least three patients walking up the stairs. How long will they take to repair the lift? How can patients walk up and down the stairs?” inquired Deenadayalan, who had come to visit his ailing friend in the hospital.
The hospital authorities however said that all the lifts were functional, except for the one in the main block. They added that it was under renovation.
“People sometimes switch off the lift that takes one to the ICU, but it is working. The other one is being renovated and it will take some time,” said Dr. Gunasekaran the Director and Superintendent, Government Royapettah Hospital.
