I have a Solution that will reduce pressure on IIT aspirants but do not know how to get this across to HRD Minister of India. Suggestions are welcome. - Ram Krishnaswamy

Search This Blog

Saturday, June 4, 2011

54 - 23rd March 2009 - IIT Kharagpur student dies due to lack of adequate medical facility, outraged students demand Director's resignation

Rohit Kumar, a 3rd year undergraduate student of Electrical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur died this morning due to lack of basic medical facilities at B.C. Roy "Hospital", the civic IIT-run hospital responsible for providing healthcare facilities to IIT-Kharagpur campus residents, which includes students, faculty members, staff and other employees.

Rohit complained of a headache on Saturday evening after a basketball match. He visited B.C.Roy Hospital, no confirmation of the occurrence there is available. During the course of the night his condition worsened and the next morning he again visited the hospital with excruciating pain. He was asked to go back after being prescribed painkillers. While going back to his Hostel, he collapsed and hit his head on the cowtrap. He was rushed back to the hospital, where he was told to wait for the Doctor to arrive in "five minutes". After three hours of "five minutes", the Doctor arrived but refused to touch him. He was referred to Apollo Hospital, Kolkata since he required treatment by a neurologist. He was sent in an ambulance also containing, besides the driver, a pharmacist and two of his friends, but no trained paramedic. Considering the profuse bleeding and worsening condition, they decided to go for Medinipur Hospital instead. He was declared 'brought dead' at Medinipur Hospital.

B.C.Roy has had a history of medical negligence, with several serious medical blunders taking place frequently, and any critical case being needed to rushed as far as Kolkata, despite the administration's claim of developing it into a "Multi-speciality medical research centre", whereas, ironically, not a single paisa has been spent in this regard. No other medical facility is available on the 2100 acre campus, while the strength of students and need for medical care is growing multi-fold every year.

Earlier, the campus newspaper, Scholar's Avenue, had been "banned" for 6 months for publishing an investigative report on the sorry state of the hospital.

Outraged students assembled outside the Director's bungalow aiming for a silent protest. However, the Director refused to attend to the students, not ready to acknowledge the problem with IIT-Kgp's medical facilities. In addition to this he was ignorant of the details of the whole incident. This lead to greater outrage and more than 2000 students gheraoed the residence.

Finally making an appearance on the balcony of the residence he expressed his SYMPATHY and appreciated that we had all gathered for the cause but promised no action. It was demanded that he answer the questions put up by the protesting students. He eventually came out with security where he made blunt promises like suspending the doctor and registering a police case against the "CULPRIT" making it evident that he was trying to laugh off the matter. This caused further unrest after which he slunk away into his house. Exasperated students aggressively demanded the director's resignation since the life of every student is his responsibility and he has not addressed to the much obvious problem even after it has been blatantly pointed out to him many a times in open house discussions with students earlier, as recent as one month ago.

What is even more amusing are the loose comments that the authorities repeatedly made - the Deputy Director said "Whats the big deal..."

Rohit's memory will forever remain embedded in our hearts. May his soul rest in peace...
Share
8 people like this.

Gaurav Sharma just ask that ass...had this happened to his own son...would he have said the same thing???
March 23, 2009 at 1:54am

Balram Suman Very sad and disturbing news. Medical facility should improve there -- which is good for all living at KGP. Medical facility has never been better there and urgent attention is needed -- it involves people's life.
March 23, 2009 at 1:59am

Ashutosh Nandan Bagaria Shocking!
Similar thing happened 2 yrs back at kgp where a first yr expired while playing cricket, and due to bcroy’s lack of medical equipment. Hope something is done asap.
March 23, 2009 at 2:19am

Abhishek Prakash I am surprised they still could not improve medical facility!!
March 23, 2009 at 2:21am

Shantanu Ghosh Shocking!!! And who is this insensitive Dy Director who makes such an idiotic statement!!!!
And how can the Director refuse to meet the students??????????
March 23, 2009 at 2:41am

Manpreet Singh Well , at KGP I got jaundice and had to spend a horrendous night at the Hospi. My parents came the next day and took me away. The place was sub human. We need to do something. How about the alumni taking the matter up.
March 23, 2009 at 3:24am

Anurag Shrivastava I spent some 15 days in this hospital after contracting chicken pox. they put me in the isolation ward and was served food just like a prisoner would be in solitary confinement - food was pushed below the door. There would be times you wou...See More
March 23, 2009 at 3:47am

Satyajit Sahu I find this news very disturbing! All these years, they merely fed Calpol to people regardless of the disease. And now overdosage of Calpol has taken its toll. And what kinda irresponsible stmt that was from the Deputy Dyro?
March 23, 2009 at 4:50am

Raj Shekhar Singh let's see wat hapens tomorrow .. will not leave these ass holes !!
March 23, 2009 at 7:02am

Ahmed Aslam The director was eventually forced to resign, the DD is the acting-director now. Later in the Open House Discussion (which took place in a completely FULL TOAT), the Dean, Student Affairs as well as The Chairman of BC Roy Hospital (who apparently was the DD himself) resigned from their posts.
An 'external' committee is supposed to be created tomorrow to look into the matter.
March 23, 2009 at 7:17am

Anshu Sharma I myself nearly died 17 years ago. So I feel quite strongly that KGP has substandard medical facilities and care. I had hoped things got better in last several years, but apparently not.

Hope we learn and provide not only good medical care but also offer psychological and psychiatric services to students who are often under grave stress.
March 23, 2009 at 10:22am

Bharti Sinha Sahay To highlight the difference an effective administration makes:
A student emergency occurred in 1992 in Kgp ...as soon as the Diro was informed. well within the hour 2 students were already accompanying the student to a high-tech hospital in...See More
March 23, 2009 at 3:32pm

Nirav Sampat Now why am I not surprised ....Has anybody thought of asking the HRD Minister to resign?
March 23, 2009 at 3:54pm

Sid Choudhury Very sorry to see that after so many years nothing much has changed at BC Roy :(
March 23, 2009 at 3:58pm

Uday Shankar Dutta Can we as alumni do something about it? Like donate to equip BC Roy as a state of art hospi with arrangement of visiting specialist who knows about their profession rather than fully depending on the Docs selected by IIT system and paid miserly.
March 23, 2009 at 6:12pm

Bharti Sinha Sahay A good idea ... however any effort in this direction would need water-tight specifications & a fully hands-on selection/ procurement process to ensure that the 'lowest-bid' contract/ specialist was indeed providing the required goods ..... the way to go would be to possibly set up an external-trust fund ... which any central govt (present/future) could not claim as their own .... too complicated to note down here.
March 23, 2009 at 6:57pm

Nitin Singla I understand that most of us share common views on this issue...The problem is quite a prominent one and the number of students and other people that depend on a medical facility inside the campus.... Request the alumni to take up this issu...See More
March 23, 2009 at 7:53pm

Uday Shankar Dutta Bharti, very well thought, we can work in that direction.
March 23, 2009 at 8:15pm

Kaushik Brahma Our MD is the Chairman of IIT KGP Board of Governors. Have put in a big word. He is visiting KGP tomorrow - lets see wat happens. Will keep you all posted.
March 23, 2009 at 9:38pm

Sunil Kumar It is a disgrace! I was admitted there few times and I used to get better just to avoid being there... first the doctor who refused to touch should be shot ! heck! they must all be shot ... they are a dangerous menace to kgp!!
March 23, 2009 at 11:53pm

Giridhar Rao Cannot believe that KGP diros have been sitting over a time bomb like this and let it happen. I guess its time that things changed... what i don't understand is - why did the faculty not push BC Roys shortcomings at Senate meetings. If i am not mistaken it caters to faculty and all other people on the campus as well.
March 24, 2009 at 12:09am

Peeyoosh Chadda Shocking. BC was always a disaster, but the callousness displayed by others is very saddening
March 24, 2009 at 12:12am

Rajnil Mallik Very sad and shameful. A dark day in Kgp's history. Does anyone know pay/ perk/ incentive structure of medical "professionals" at BC Roy?
March 24, 2009 at 5:57am

Ajit Sutar This is not the first. In my second semester (1995), there was a fatality due to lack of proper care and the director had promised us (who were protesting outside the director's office) that there will not be a repeat.
March 24, 2009 at 9:51am

Kaushik Mandal B C Roy hospital has always remained a shame for IIT KGP. It's another shame that students still need to protest - the authorities haven't yet managed to add to the infrastructure....continuous death of bright students !
March 24, 2009 at 10:14pm

Anand Prakash Now Police is doing its job of distorting the fact. According to one report : "Police said Rohit Kumar, a third-year Electrical Engineering department student who had a history of epilepsy, was admitted to B.C. Roy Hospital on the campus after he met with an accident two days ago. "
It is about time for authorities to accept the truth and fix the problem , instead of running away and hiding from it.
March 24, 2009 at 10:57pm

Shahnawaz Karim This incident has once again bought home the need to improve our health care facilities . Given the state of B C Roy hospital ,such incidents can very well happen in future.What is needed is better infrastructure, recruiting full time doctors and a well equipped emergency.
March 28, 2009 at 1:41am

Nitin Dhawan In my first year, a student was blinded due to wrong medications by the "Technology" Hospital. Interestingly it is very easy to compare us to lab-rats.
March 28, 2009 at 6:45pm

Sourav Chatterjee Very good initiative, specially on engaging the alums. The KGP campus desperately needs a well-equipped hospital, specially given the fact that there is a basic lack of medical facilities within the town itself . I recollect a personal hor...See More
March 28, 2009 at 7:44pm

Abhinav Bana This is a very ood initiative. I would suggest that IIT Foundation alumnis should take this up directly with the Dean, and that future funding for the Institute, from IIT Foundation should be linked to the progress on providing even the bas...See More
March 28, 2009 at 9:31pm

Rajwinder Singh Utterly unacceptable. The hospital seems to be stuck in time with a lack of basic facilities as well as physician care.
June 5, 2009 at 3:57am

Abhishek Gupta wats happening thr on this issue, whr can I get updates..
and above all, wat can I do.. is thr any one to lead or guide??
June 9, 2009 at 12:34am

Susmita Cheruvathoor i wonder where are we heading....i was born in this hospital...and just cant digest that people are dying out there ....guys its time to act ....have dharnas..slogans...hartals....all you guys out there....your life is not in safe hands....please react...jago...inefficient doctors ko nikalo....
June 17, 2009 at 10:23pm

Saurabh Mittra any updates on this?? i just heard about the suicide in MMM a few days ago??

where are the people who said they would be pursuing this matter with the Governors? did anything come out of it?
June 26, 2009 at 10:05pm

Sunil Linux Karthik Gopal, no one likes to waste their lives fighting with a sick system and society. Take one good example, what happened to that IITian's report on busting the EVMs? Everyone played politics on that but was there any concrete result? ...See More
August 9, 2009 at 6:14pm

Sunil Linux Coming to the point, I would like to say "Arm Chair" speech is very easy to do. Please come to the ground and face the problem! I would like to ask, is there any hospital or institution which is free of incidents/accidents/negligence? Did a...See More
August 9, 2009 at 6:25pm

Mahavir Jagdev The quality of the Direcors at KGP has deteriorated since our times in 70's with Brig. Bose being a Director, he had an Aura around him ... and then a guy came in from BHU ... a political appointee who couldn't even give a speech in English...See More
September 26, 2009 at 5:44am

Mahavir Jagdev Well the Tech hospital was good enough for those times in 70's but it seems to have stagnated in time .... but during our times the boys too were no less ...... they wanted to get admitted there only to hook the nurses and apply the ointmen...See More
September 26, 2009 at 6:01am

Vandana Mishra its good and informative
January 7, 2010 at 2:08pm

Jayanta Mandal Its very unfortunate! I would recommend BC Roy hospital for day-to-day diseases, e.g. fever, cold etc. Since for those cases, I got good results after consulting doctors from the hospital.

But definitely my heart aches in pain for Rohit. Ma...See More
February 11, 2010 at 8:07pm