Selfie obsession dangerous: Experts

In the wake of the tragic drowning of a college student at Bandra, researchers have said that the quest for the perfect selfie can have seriously adverse consequences.

Earlier, in January 2015, a 16-year-old suffered 90 per cent burns while performing a stunt on the roof of a train while trying to click a selfie. He had received an electric shock from a 25,000-volt overhead wire.

Throwing light upon the growing selfie addiction, Dr Sagar Mundada, psychiatrist, JJ Hospital, said, “In the past one year, 12 people have died in accidents while clicking selfies. It is becoming an addiction. I have seen two cases where if the patients don’t click at least five selfies every day, they would become very anxious.”

A patient is abandoned at JJ Hospital every week

The odour of bandaged wounds is the first sensation that is experienced when one sets foot in ward number 4 at JJ Hospital. At the end of this ward lies Hema Mohanty, a patient who receives no visitors or well-wishers. The 26-year-old can be seen reeling in pain with blood oozing from her left leg, which has rotted away due to gangrene. Ms Mohanty is in need of immediate surgery to stop the infection from spreading all over her body. And in addition to her agony, she has come to grips with the fact that it was her own husband who had abandoned her here.

Medical neglect hearing a let down

The public hearing by the National Human Rights Commission to hear the complaints of medical negligence turned out to be a damp squib for many who had turned up at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Deonar on Wednesday as the commission refused to hear complaints against private hospitals from Maharashtra. This left many complainants disappointed as well as angry with the NHRC. While the NHRC officials claimed they had no power to act against private hospitals, complainants said the whole exercise was meaningless if the commission was going to hear matters related only to government and civic hospitals.

‘Private hospitals need effective grievance redressal cells’

The much-awaited public hearing of the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) concluded on Thursday but many complainants of medical negligence cases had to go back home empty-handed after the body refused to hear cases against private hospitals. However, during the two days of hearing, the commission also highlighted several lapses in the health services and raised the need for effective grievance redressal cells (GRC) at private hospitals.
The commission will submit its suggestions to the Medical Council of India (MCI) and its state bodies with the observation made during the hearings. Though the official website of NHRC stated that the body would hear cases against public and private health services, the latter was refused on Wednesday.

SHRC sends suo moto notice to Aids society over fund crunch

The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has sent a suo moto notice to Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS) for shortage of funds for HIV treatment, irregular distribution of condoms, and lack of drugs at Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) centres in the state. SHRC has made these observations based on articles published in the media.
“We have sent a suo moto notice to MSACS by acting on reports published in the media. We are yet to receive any response, as it has been sent just a few days ago. In the past one year, we have taken up 52 cases under suo moto,” said Justice Bhannurmath, chairperson, SHRC.

NGO, hospital give baby new lease of life

Eight-month-old Kavya Shinde, who has been suffering from a serious cardiac ailment, will finally get a new lease of life as a hospital and an NGO joined hands to arrange the money for her surgery and further treatment.
Vision Child Foundation has collected `2 lakh for Kavya’s surgery while Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital will pay another Rs 2 lakh required for her treatment. She will be admitted at the hospital on Monday for the surgery.
The infant is suffering from a congenital heart disease, a birth defect that affects the normal functioning of the heart. According to the doctors, she needs to undergo an urgent open-heart surgery followed by intracardiac repair that helps in increasing blood flow to the heart. If not operated upon immediately, Kavya may not survive much longer, the doctors said.

Indore woman donates heart to 16-year-old Mumbai girl

The heart of a 20-year-old brain dead girl travelled 546 km between Indore and Mumbai within one hour and 58 minutes, saving a 16-year-old girl suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy. It is the first inter-state heart transplant on a minor to be conducted in the city and the first one in India this year.
A team of doctors at Fortis Hospital, Mulund conducted a successful heart transplant on the 16-year-old recipient from Vikhroli on Sunday. When the Indore patient was declared brain dead, her family gave the consent to donate her heart and liver. The donor was then moved to Choitaram Hospital, Indore for evaluation and assessment.

5 children die every month due to HIV

Raghu, a three-year-old from Narole, has been diagnosed with HIV infection and is currently staying with a local NGO. Sadly, both of Raghu’s parents, who were HIV-infected, did not opt for treatment even when Raghu was conceived owing to social stigma. Which is why, the HIV virus got transmitted into Raghu and he is now under continuous medication at ART Centre.
“Due to social stigma, Raghu’s parents did not take any medical precautionary measures to save their children from the infection. The child was delivered at home to save themselves from the shame,” said Bharat Tamang, project manager, Desire, an NGO working for HIV-infected children.

Women helpline functions for only 8 hours a day in Maharashtra

The centralised women helpline number — 181 — that was proposed for better safety of women after the Delhi gang rape incident has failed to assist women in need as it is functional only between 10 am and 6 pm. Also, none of the one-stop-crisis centres have been connected to the helpline. This, in spite of Mumbai ranking high in terms of the number of criminal cases recorded in India.
The central government announced the centralised helpline number in all states, but it got delayed in Maharashtra. So, in June this year, a fresh announcement was made to start the helpline number in the state. But surprisingly, the helpline functions only between 10 am and 6 pm. There are no call attendants at night.

Lack of penalty increases HIV threat

Every year, hundreds fall prey to HIV infection through blood transfusion, states the data given by National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco). However, medical experts said many infected patients do not reveal their medical condition while donating blood. But government bodies that monitor transfusion don’t have any regulations to curb such incidences.
As per a Right to Information application in possession with The Asian Age, the central government body, Naco along with Mumbai Districts AIDS Control Society (MDACS) that function under it don’t have any penal provision under the blood policy. The person who filed the RTI application did not want to reveal his identity.

Separation units are a bloody mess

Even as the government has invested more than Rs 16 lakh to provide expensive equipment to Dr RN Cooper and Rajawadi hospitals’ blood banks for establishing blood component separation units, it is yet to start functioning.
To provide the infrastructure to separate life saving components from whole blood to more hospitals, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced in 2010 that a blood component separation unit would be started in Rajawadi hospital. The executive committee sanctioned the proposal to construct another one at Cooper Hospital on September 17, 2014. However, as per the documents accessed by The Asian Age, both the units are still pending.

Flashback 2015: Work on making Aruna’s room a crisis centre yet to begin

As soon as you enter the 250-square-foot room on the ground floor of ward number 4 of KEM Hospital, a notice on the board greets you saying, “This is Aruna Shanbaug’s room’. Indeed, a semi-comatose, cortically blind Aruna spent 42 years of her tragic life, bed-ridden in this room, after she was inhumanly raped and violated by a former KEM ward boy. Finally, on May 18 this year, she succumbed to her untold suffering. The room became a poignant reminder of her struggle and similar hardships that many other rape victims like her might have endured.
As a mark of respect, the state government, in September this year, announced that the room would be made part of a 1,000 square foot open crisis centre. However, when The Asian Age paid a visit to the ward just the other day, we found that nothing had moved since the announcement.

Amputee gets verdict, but no justice

After fighting for 13 years, Raghavendra Rao, 39, won the first battle of his medical negligence case when the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission held the accused doctor accountable of not taking proper consent before conducting the surgery.
A fine of Rs 25,000 was imposed on the doctor that was supposed to be handed over to the victim but even after a year has passed since the incident, the victim is yet to receive the amount.

80 per cent Mumbaikars go online to read up on health issues

With the growing usage of Internet in mobile phones, 80 per cent of Mumbaikars refer to the Internet to enquire about health-related issues. Moreover, 14 per cent of them take medication based on information without consulting doctors that often mislead them, deteriorating their health condition. This was revealed in a recent study done by Medical Association of Resident Doctors (MARD).
The study was done over the past two weeks and included 400 respondents. Anshika Malhotra, an 18-year-old from Thane, was recently admitted to a hospital after she started bleeding profusely from her private parts. Ms Malhotra, a tech-savvy college student, had consumed medication for pain related to menstruation without consulting with a doctor. Upon talking with her, doctors discovered that she had searched the Internet and bought the suggested medicine from a nearby medical shop.