Kozhikode: Leaving the kids with her parents, a mother of three travels daily to the Kozhikode medical college. She is on an indefinite strike at the hospital.
She has been forced to neglect her ailments, kids' education, and husband's health alongside personal well-being: she wants justice for the trauma she was put through.
Harshina has fainted five times so far in her makeshift shed in front of the hospital of exhaustion.
Fifty-one days are over now after Harshina started her strike as a second phase of her agitation; her demand for justice stands neglected. Authorities are yet to intervene. On Friday, she shifted her protest to the collectorate for a day, demanding the district collector's intervention.
"It's not easy to sit on a strike daily. I am not in a situation to do it even for a day; I have health issues. My husband is suffering from high fever, kids are with my parents, they are missing school...Whatever the hardships, I will go on with the strike until my death," Harshina told Onmanorama sitting in front of Kozhikode civil station.
"Fifty-one days are over. Yet there has been no intervention from the authorities concerned. The health minister said to wait until they receive a probe report," said Harshina.
Harshina's story
Harshina Malayil Kulangara from Manakkadavu, Pantheerankavu, Kozhikode, is the symbol of indomitable will. She is a survivor of medical negligence after forceps were allegedly left inside her womb following a caesarean section at the Kozhikode Medical College.
"I am ready to go on strike for 5,001 days until I GET justice," she once told the media.
She wants to know how the forceps were left inside her womb, leading to continuous pain, repeated infection and surgeries. She demands investigation reports be revealed and adequate compensation for the trauma.
Harshina, (33), underwent a C-section at Thamarassery taluk hospital twice - in 2012 and 2016. Subsequently, she went for a third C-section in 2017 at the government medical college in Kozhikode. Two months later, she suffered from severe pain in her stomach; she used to get infected repeatedly and underwent two more surgeries. As Harshina's health deteriorated, her husband Ashraf had to sit with her after winding up their business and undergoing a loss of Rs 35 lakh.
Finally, a doctor at a private hospital pointed out to her the presence of forceps inside her body. Soon after, 12 cm-long steel surgical scissors were retrieved by surgery in September 2022 from her abdomen at the government medical college.
Harshina then lodged a with the health minister Veena George's office, the assistant commissioner of police, Kozhikode city, and the superintendent of the medical college. Medical college authorities later claimed that it was not their scissors that were left inside.
As she was certain about where the negligence had occurred, she started the stir before the medical college. Once the health minister visited her and promised compensation. At the time, the minister had pointed out that even though it was not clear where the negligence had occurred, the government was bound to compensate her as both the hospitals were government owned. Then the cabinet decided to pay her Rs 2 lakh as compensation and announced an investigation by the home department.
Harshina did not accept the two suggestions. 'What can I do with Rs 2 lakh? The pain that I endured for five years living with the 12-cm steel forceps is beyond the limit," she told the media back then.
She was not happy with the decision for an investigation by the home department as the police had already commenced a probe into the complaint she lodged. The health department initiated two inquiries thereafter: both reports said the source of the scissors was not clear.
"Even though Harshina demanded the investigative report, she didn't receive it," said action council chairman Dinesh Perumanna. 'Police investigation is not complete. They have not submitted the chargesheet," Dinesh told Onmanorama.
'Why is the chief minister and health minister neglecting this girl who is staging a strike on the street?' asked Shanimol Usman, former MLA and KPCC Rashtriya Karya Samiti member, during her speech at the sit-in on the occasion of the stir completing 51 days.
'Commissions worthless'
Alongside Harshina's sit-in, the State Women's Commission was holding an adalat simultaneously at the collectorate conference hall. "There may not be a situation elsewhere where a woman sits for a strike for justice," said chairperson P Sathidevi to the media.
"Investigators must find out the person who is responsible for this serious negligence. Women's Commission had informed Harshina about our readiness to provide legal aid. Let's wait for the police report," she said.
Harshina feels all kinds of commissions are worthless: "Everybody wants a cut from the government."
