Mumbai: A rat bit an 85-year-old patient with dementia and a severe chest infection admitted to the sixth-floor female medicine ward of the BMC-run Cooper Hospital in Juhu on Wednesday night, said her family.Photographs of the bite marks on Marol resident Indumati Chavan’s left hand were widely circulated on social media on Friday. Her son-in-law Santosh Jadhav claimed that another aged patient in the same ward also suffered rat bites on Thursday night.BMC medical education director Dr Neelam Andrade, however, told TOI that she did not receive any intimation about the rat-bite incidents. “The issue of rodent menace in the hospital has been flagged, and we have sent a show-cause notice to the housekeeping contractor, KHFM Hospitality, for not carrying out pest control work properly,” she said. The contractor is supposed to carry out checks for rodents every three months.Cooper Hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Dev Shetty said only one patient suffered rat bites. “BMC has posted pest control officials from K-West ward office to the hospital, and they have made some suggestions,” he said, adding that the menace cannot be stopped until patients’ families stop throwing food waste that attracts rodents.Chavan was admitted to Cooper Hospital on Saturday as she experienced difficulty breathing due to the chest infection. She was in intensive care for a few days and then transferred to the ward on Tuesday. On Thursday morning, when her grandson visited her, he noticed the bite marks.The family lodged a complaint with the authorities, but withdrew it in the evening. “We were shocked at the deep bite marks and the lack of immediate care, but after we met the senior doctors, she was attended to,” said Jadhav, explaining why they withdrew the complaint. TOI called up the Juhu police station, where a senior officer said that they were aware of the case, but no complaint was filed.Rat-bite incidents are not uncommon in BMC hospitals, and the corporation has outsourced housekeeping and pest control of 10 hospitals to a private contractor. Dr Sudhir Medhekar, academic dean of Cooper Hospital, said he has raised the rodent issue multiple times with the higher authorities. “I have sent multiple show-cause notices to the contractor and even sent a proposal in July to blacklist them,” he added.
