The last one-and-a-half months have been the most traumatic for Sravani, an engineering student and one of the victims of the Dilsukhnagar twin blasts on February 21.
The 20-year-old sustained a broken jaw, lost her sense of hearing, had her spinal cord fractured, sustained burns and suffered nerve damage to her right hand when the blasts ripped through the busy commercial area.
Sravani was rushed to Care Hospital, immediately after the blast. She was discharged after 13 days of treatment and her family was given no information about the long-term rehabilitation or treatment to be followed.
Relief short-lived
Confined to the bed, things did not seem to head anywhere even as Sravani tried hard to come to terms with the shock while her family watched helplessly.
The Hindu had highlighted Sravani’s plight in its columns on March 12, which prompted the State authorities to act and the very next day they offered to shift her to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) for treatment. But, the relief was short-lived.
“We were assured of a private room and 24-hour medical assistance at NIMS but within two days, she was shifted to the general ward and left unattended,” charges Harikanth B. Goud, her brother, livid with the lack of humane touch and indifference of the government departments towards the blasts’ victims.
Sravani also needs a surgery on her right ear. But NIMS has no ENT surgeon presently.
“The doctors advised us to get the operation done elsewhere without giving any information about who will pay for the surgery,” he says.
Turn for worse
So distraught was Sravani at the turn of events that she started slipping into depression.
“She started having nightmares after they shifted her to the general ward which had patients awaiting plastic surgery. With male patients all round and no privacy, she was feeling uncomfortable. She frequently cried, refused to eat and even threw up whatever little she ate,” recalls a despondent Manga, her mother, on the horrific experience at NIMS.
“Instead of recovering, my daughter was slipping into depression. We had no option but to bring her home,” she says. Sravani’s case is another indicator of the government’s lack of any long-term rehabilitation plan. Even if there is one in place, the blast victims are surely ignorant.
When contacted, Arogyasri officials maintained that Sravani was accorded proper care at NIMS and the family on its own volition requested for discharge.
