Covid-19: Woman molested in Bihar hospital in front of sick husband

A woman whose husband and mother were in an ICU in a hospital in Bhagalpur in Bihar battling Covid-19 had to face the ignominy of being molested by an attendant at the facility.

A 10-minute video, which has gone viral on social media, has her narrate her ordeal to the media. “A hospital attendant at Bhagalpur pulled my dupatta (scarf) and put his hand on my waist promising he will take care of my husband who was admitted at the hospital for treatment of lung infection,” says the woman. “I kept mum as my husband and mother too were admitted in the hospital.”

Tragically, her husband was not given adequate oxygen and after battling for a fortnight he died in a Patna hospital.

A resident of Noida near Delhi, she and her husband had visited Bihar for a family gathering. Her husband fell ill on April 9 but turned negative for coronavirus twice. Her mother, too, was hospitalised and kept in the ICU, but doctors and other staff including attendants at the local hospital would hardly bother about them, she said.

She specifically mentioned Jyoti Kumar, an attendant at the hospital. “I asked him for clean bedsheets for my husband and he said he would help,” said the woman. “When I was talking to my husband, he yanked my dupatta from behind. He was smiling with his hand on my waist.”

Worried about her husband and mother, she could not do anything at that moment. After she spoke of the incident, the Bihar government initiated a probe and the hospital suspended Jyoti Kumar.

The woman also had terrible experiences at two other hospitals in Mayaganj and Patna, where her pleas for oxygen for her husband were ignored by the staff. At Patna, the oxygen was cut off and she was forced to buy it in the black market, she bemoaned.

• India