Tags:
Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, SEPT 21: While the Union Health Ministry sits over the report on the medical treatment of late Power Minister P R Kumaramangalam before he died of suspected leukaemia last month, no one seems to be available to answer simple queries being made by widow Kitty Kumaramangalam.
She has till date been denied medical reports of tests done on her husband while he was in the intensive care unit at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
“When I call the haemotology department asking for reports, they just disconnect the phone,” she says, crying. “I want to see the bone marrow report of my husband which says he had leukaemia…Do they need the CAT scan report and bone marrow report for the inquiry?”
Speaking to The Indian Express
she said that her husband had got a blood test done at the Apollo Hospital some time before he was admitted to AIIMS in a critical condition. “The tests showed he was excellent,” she says.
Apollo Hospital, when asked about this test, said that Kumaramangalam had taken a test on May 9. “When he found that he was fine, he went away without referring it to the doctor concerned,” they said.
Asked what the tests were for, Apollo hospital authorities said that it was a routine blood test for the pneumonia patch he had on his chest.
The Department of haematology in AIIMS when asked about Kumaramangalam’s bone marrow report said that all reports were there in the patient’s files and everyone knew about them. “His bone marrow test was like that of any other patient of mine and there is nothing to hide about it,” said Prof Manorama Bhargava, head of the department.
“Mrs Kumaramangalam should have no problem at all as all doctors were talking to her all the time. Her sister used to be my student and she was also there,” she said. “She can call me anytime and ask whatever she wants to know,” she added.
