A 60-year old patient at Government Royapettah Hospital (GRH) committed suicide by jumping from the first floor of the building in the early hours on Monday.
According to police, Rajaraman (58) was a resident of Semmencherry. He was diagnosed with cancer in the gastrointestinal tract a few years ago, and had been undergoing treatment.
On Friday, he had come to the hospital for the third time, and had been admitted to the old hospital block behind the mortuary.
Police said that doctors had fitted a tube into his nose and mouth as part of the treatment, and this had annoyed him. “He was uncomfortable and wanted the tubes removed. The doctors said removing the tube would endanger his life and refused to do it. Also, Rajaraman was depressed as he felt he was becoming a burden on his family,” said a policeman at the GRH police outpost.
On Sunday night, the nurses gave Rajaraman his medicines and left the ward. His wife was sleeping near him. “Around 2 a.m. on Monday, under the pretext of going to the toilet he slipped out of the ward on the first floor, crawled through a small opening in a window and jumped,” said a police source.
Staff at the hospital ran out to find Rajaraman lying in a pool of blood. They informed the police and the body was sent for a post-mortem examination. His relatives arrived at the hospital later in the day. “He was not employed anywhere. He was not able to deal with the disease,” a relative said.
