Three abandoned sick elderly men die at MY hospital

Three out of four elderly men who were found abandoned in pathetic condition at the MY Hospital succumbed to their diseases on Wednesday. Doctors feel that one of them may  have died of starvation or lung disease.

The men with skeletal body, who had little clothes on and could barely speak, were thrown from pushcarts outside MY Hospital on wee hours of Monday.
Hospital officials were in  a quandary as to what to do of the hapless individuals.
"One of the victims was thinly built. Death due to starvation or lung disease can't be ruled out,"  demonstrator (forensic medicine) Mahendra Sharma told dna.

 Auto-rickshaw drivers of the MY Hospital stand alleged that the men were thrown out by the hospital staff to prevent ugly scenes during a foundation stone laying ceremony of renovation work attended by state ministers.

The hospital refuted the claims and described it as a regular occurrence.
Hospital superintendent Dr P S Thakur said, "These are beggars and this( abandoning them sick to die) is a regular feature."

Elderly men are either thrown away by shelter homes or themselves runaway to come here and get free food from NGOs in the hospital campus, he said.

"We can't allow the hospital to be a shelter home. Where will the patients go if it becomes one?."

Dr Thakur claimed that the hospital saw 25 such destitute on Monday. They either reached the hospital themselves or are suspected to be abandoned by the shelter homes which do not have sufficient space to accommodate the elderly who are spending the last few years of their lives.

Free food distributed by NGOs at the hospital attract the beggers, he claimed adding it has become a perennial problem.

Thakur said that the hospital is not willing to shoulder the responsibility of such "beggars" and will involve the district administration officials to get rid of them.