'Climbed 24 steps to reach washroom': RG Kar hospital cardiac patient walks to toilet, collapses in son’s arms, dies

KOLKATA: A 60-year-old cardiac patient collapsed in his son’s arms and died after walking about 40 metre from the trauma care building of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and climbing a flight of stairs to access a male pay-and-use toilet early on Monday.

The incident, three days after a 40-year-old was smashed to death by the doors of a malfunctioning elevator in the trauma care building of the hospital while he was taking his child to the pay-and-use toilet, has turned the spotlight back on the lack of patient facilities in the govt-run healthcare hub.

Biswajit Samanta, a resident of Bisharpara in Nimta, on the northern fringes of the city, was taken to the emergency unit of RG Kar around 3am after he started bleeding from his nose and complained of severe chest pain, shortness of breath and dizziness.

Son Bishal said his father was gasping for breath when they reached the emergency unit, housed on the ground floor of the trauma care centre. “Doctors immediately attended to my father and put him on oxygen and gave him life-saving medicines. His condition improved in about two hours. We felt relieved,” said Bishal, a second-year BTech student.

Feeling better, Samanta said he wanted to use the wash room. Bishal started looking for a toilet when the staff in the emergency room asked him to take his father to the pay-and-use toilet at the gate of the hospital compound, about 40 metre away.

Supported by wife Ila and son, he gingerly headed towards the toilet. The physical exertion of the walk compounded after he climbed 24 steps to reach the male wash room on the first floor of the two-storeyed toilet complex. He collapsed in his son’s arms on reaching the door to the male toilet.

“After we climbed to the upper floor of the toilet complex, my father collapsed. Relatives of some other patients helped us bring him down. I ran and grabbed the first trolley I found. We put him on the trolley and rushed him back to the trauma care building,” Bishal recounted.

Doctors tried to revive Samanta but failed. He was declared dead around 5.30 am.

“As far as the medical care is concerned, I have no complaint as doctors wasted no time. The death could have been avoided had there been a wash room in the emergency unit. I wish someone had warned me that physical exertion could be fatal for my father and advised me to take him to the toilet on a trolley or a wheelchair,” Bishal said.

Despite being a driver by profession and barely literate, the deceased and wife Ila, a dengue worker at North Dum Dum Municipality, ensured good education for their son. His father’s death forced Bishal to miss his third-semester exam.

The RG Kar authorities said the emergency unit has only one operational toilet and that is earmarked for the staff. “Space is an issue on the ground floor of the trauma care building. We are unable to make room for new toilets. We are discussing possible solutions, such as installation of bio-toilets, with stakeholders,” said an RG Kar official.

Tala police station has registered an unnatural death case.