Dengue kills GMCH staffer’s daughter, quarters in poor repair

Aurangabad: A 14-year-old girl, daughter of a class IV employee at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), died while under treatment for dengue on Friday morning. The family resides at the staff quarters within the premises of the government hospital.
Members of the staff were furious that such a death could happen in a family of one of their own.They alleged that GMCH does nothing towards maintaining cleanliness. Staff quarters too are poorly maintained, they said.
Sheetal Kirtikar, daughter of Sainath Kirtikar, was admitted to GMCH two days ago with fever. She was diagnosed with dengue on Thursday night. Treatment was underway when she died early Friday. The Kirtikars are residents of House 8 of B-2 wing, opposite the medicine ward of the hospital.
Medical superintendent Kailash Zine said two others, young women, from the same block were treated for dengue at the same time as the little girl. They have since been discharged.
Drainage and drinking water pipes in the staff quarters are broken or leaking, leading to puddles of drain water near the building that are filled with solid waste. These have becomes sites where mosquitoes breed.
Shabana Shaikh Naseem, wife of a staffer, said her family had been living in the building for 17 years. “At any given time, one or more people in my family are sick. My daughter and granddaughter suffered jaundice a month ago,” she said.
Ajay Suradkar, another resident, said garbage from the quarters is not collected by the corporation. A month ago four new drain pipes were installed at one of the buildings. These were not connected to the drainage chamber, causing wastewater to collect. Zine agreed that drainage was a problem, but said that residents throw plastic, causing drains to choke. He said although illegal occupants of the quarters are regularly evicted, they return. “When our staff goes to clean or repair pipelines, the illegal occupants, sometimes inebriated, pose trouble,” Zine said.
Residents said GMCH was just washing its hands of the responsibility of maintaining the staff quarters to standards that were acceptable.