Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday expressed the state’s regret over the death of a migrant labourer from Tamil Nadu and tendered an apology to his family over the denial of treatment to him by at least four hospitals in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram.
Murugan, a native of Tirunelveli, sustained serious head injuries in a road accident in Kollam. Employees of a private ambulance service drove around for about seven hours between the two districts, looking for hospitals, before he was declared dead at the Kollam District Hospital on Monday. “This is an incident which has shamed the state. I’m apologising, on behalf of the state, to the family of Murugan,” Vijayan said in the Legislative Assembly.
The Chief Minister said the government would take necessary measures to ensure that such incidents were not repeated and a legislation in this connection, if required, would be considered. A message in Tamil was posted on the Chief Minister’s official Facebook page, apologising to the family of the deceased on behalf of “the state and its people”.
A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered in connection with the incident. The accident happened on a National Highway stretch at Ithikkara in Kollam district, at about 11 pm on Sunday, when a motorbike collided with the bike Murugan was riding on.
According to the ambulance staff, authorities at Medicity in Kollam, a multi-specialty hospital, refused admission to Murugan because he was an “unidentified” patient without a bystander.
The other hospitals – Azeezia and Meditrina in Kollam and the Government Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram – refused to admit him citing non-availability of surgeons, ventilator and trauma care systems.
Published 10 August 2017, 09:35 IST