Ranga's wife says AIIMS is uglier than Apollo, the system killed him

Ranga's wife says AIIMS is uglier than Apollo, the system killed him
SREELATHA MENON

New Delhi, September 14: The inquiry into the death of former Minister P R Kumaramangalam shouldn't be just an exercise in finger-pointing, said the late Minister's wife reserving harsh words for All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where her husband lay comatose for nine days till his death.

Speaking to The Indian Express, she said: ``Do you know that AIIMS is far uglier than Apollo? All the reports of Apollo are with me. But AIIMS gave me nothing. When he was taken to the ICU, we were told that his blood pressure was 40. But he was chatting with the doctors and with us. When they said a stretcher was being brought, he asked them to get lost and was finally persuaded to use a wheelchair. He then went to the ICU chatting. Can a man with 40 bp walk and chat? I asked the inquiry panel all this.''

So that her comments aren't seen as part of the Apollo vs AIIMS fight, she made it clear that AIIMS was needed by the poor in the country and there was no doubt that it was doing more public service than Apollo.

On the probe report, she said that Health Minister C P Thakur called her up yesterday. ``He asked me what should they do with the report. I said let the world see it...He asked me whether I wanted to hide it and I said no,'' she said.

She said she had told the government that the probe shouldn't be used tovictimise people. ``I know it's the honest man who will be victimised while the real culprits in the system will get away.''

Asked who were the doctors who treated or advised her husband after he was discharged from Apollo, she said there were many and all of them said it was not cancer. ``And since it was not cancer they said he could take TB drugs.''

Blaming the ``system'' for her husband's death, she said: ``And I do not want the same system to continue to harm the poor public. The inquiry must improve the system,'' she says. ``It is not (about) targeting Apollo Hospital. We have too many ill people and we need doctors. I do not want to harm them either. The inquiry is only about how my husband died.''

However, the debate over the inquiry got fresh impetus when an aggressive Apollo demanded immediate disclosure of the inquiry report. It also questioned the terms of inquiry being limited to just the nine days he spent in Apollo (April 14 - 23) rather than also including the subsequent treatment he received from various doctors including those at AIIMS.

Apollo claimed that Thakur's comments suggest some irregularities. Thakur had yesterday told the media that the inquiry panel had sought another week's time but later in the evening, he had said that the report had indicted Apollo for mistakes in the Kumaramangalam case.

``Either Thakur is taking the media for a ride or the report is being delayed with ulterior motives,'' said Apollo CEO Brigadier Chandra Shukla.

C P Singh, medical superintendent of RML Hospital who headed the inquiry team, said that the team had asked for time but now the report was with the Ministry.

When asked about the report he said it was comprehensive and its purpose was to investigate allegations of failure on the part of Apollo Hospital to diagnose the cause of Kumaramangalam's chronic fever as being caused by acute leukaemia.

Shukla, however, maintains that Apollo is being unfairly singled out. ``The purpose of the inquiry is not to arrive at the truth behind the death of the minister but to castigate and victimise the hospital. Or else the public should know why Kumaramangalam was not treated in the first 48 hours after his admission in AIIMS,'' he said. ``How can you have an inquiry that restricts itself to nine days when the patient died four months later?''