Suicides, escapes, protocol violations, delayed tests... there is a parade of lapses in Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.

The latest was the twin suicides in the isolation ward of the hospital on Wednesday; 33-year old Unni, a painter, and 38-year-old Murugan, a carpenter.

Medical College authorities say both were addicted to liquor and had displayed withdrawal symptoms. All the more reason for them to have been under strict observation. “It is easy to keep watch on patients in a ward but when they are in COVID-19 isolation, they are sealed in and the staff cannot frequently go in and out of their rooms,” a health official in the hospital said.

Unni had escaped from his isolation room on June 9 and it was locals at his village, Anad, who alerted the Health Department and the police and helped to transport him back to the hospital. Next day, on June 10, he was found hanging on a fan blade in his isolation room.

Murugan, too, was brought to the Medical College in quite a disturbing fashion. He was found lying on the street, soaked in alcohol and unconscious. It was local body officials who called up the police, and they took him straight to the hospital.

It was later learned that Murugan's family had refused to let him inside the house because he was badly drunk and also because they feared he had COVID-19. "The man is said to have returned from Kulathupuzha near Tamil Nadu border. He was not here for the past two months, and is suspected to have gone to Tamil Nadu," Nedumangad municipality chairman Chettachal Sahadevan said.

It is still not clear what prompted him to commit suicide. It could have been family issues, as sources in Nedumangad say, or it could be the shock of having tested positive. It is also said Murugan was delusional, like any alcoholic with withdrawal symptoms, and his strange state of mind could have made him take the fatal decision.

Unni, too, had demonstrated delusional aggressive behaviour. His suicide appears weird as he would have been discharged quickly because his second sample, too, had tested negative.

Health minister K K Shailaja had asked the health secretary to submit a report on both the suicides urgently.

Delayed tests

The deaths were not the only incidents that called for immediate answers. It has now come to light that the priest, Fr K G Varghese, who died on June 2 was not tested for COVID-19 even though he had shown symptoms at least a fortnight ago. He was declared positive after his death

A nursing assistant working in the hospital tested positive on June 9, a sign that many health-workers in the Medical College could be affected. The death of the priest itself had raised the possibility.

Even then, no steps have yet been taken to properly assess the infection control activities in the hospital. Experts in anti-microbial resistance and infection control have still not been deputed to provide training to the hospital staff, one of Kerala's top COVID Care Centres.

There were shocking lapses even before. A foreign returnee who had his samples taken in the Medical College on May 30 was asked to go home before the results of his samples were published.

But by the time he returned home and possibly mingled closely with his family, his tests results turned up positive. The man then had to be urgently brought back to the Medical College in an ambulance.

At that point, all returnees from abroad had to undergo compulsory institutional quarantine for at least seven days.

Shailaja has asked the Medical College Superintendent to submit a report on the alleged lapse on June 1. However, no action had been reportedly taken.

A similar incident had happened in the Medical College in the first week of March, before the lockdown began. A person who returned from Italy was taken directly to the Medical College for testing but once the sample was taken, he was asked to go home even after the person insisted that he be put in an isolation ward.

The man then reluctantly took an autorickshaw to his house in Vellanad, in the outskirts of the city. On the way, he entered a medical shop and a juice stall and is said to have come into contact with at least 50 people. The moment he reached home, his result came as positive. Then, too, an ambulance had to be sent to bring the patient back.