Telangana tribal woman denied surgery by government hospital
KHAMMAM: NO matter how many schemes or policies the State comes up with to ‘uplift’ marginalised communities, systemic violence has a way of finding these groups wherever they go, whatever they do. Case in point: a 60-year-old Gottikoya tribal woman had visited the Khammam headquarters (government) hospital with a fractured leg. However, the hospital staff allegedly refused to perform surgery on her because she had no ration card. In fact, they discharged her on Sunday after 15 days of keeping her in the hospital.
According to sources, Madakam Jyothi, a resident of Kothamedepalli village in Eknoor mandal, had migrated from the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh about 10 years ago. She makes a living by selling firewood collected from a forest in the village.
Around 20 days ago, she had gone to the forest with two other women for collecting firewood, where she was reportedly attacked by wild animals. The two other women managed to escape without injuries, but Jyothi, while making a run for it, fell into a 10-foot deep ditch. Her leg was fractured as a result.
She got admitted to the headquarter hospital with the help of a social worker, Srinivas. The doctors assured to perform surgery on her leg, but as days passed, it seemed like they were deliberately delaying the surgery. On Sunday, the doctors and staff at the hospital informed her that they could not perform the surgery on her because she possessed no ration card. They later discharged Jyothi.
However, Srinivas alleged that a ration card was not mandatory to perform surgeries in case of emergencies. Interestingly, Jyothi has both an Aadhaar card and a Voter ID. When contacted, the hospital superintendent J Venkateswarlu said: “I am not aware of this situation. We would launch an inquiry.”