MBBS grad succumbs after contracting TB at Sion hospital

Samidha Khandare (24) was interning at Sion Hospital after obtaining her MBBS degree. A resident of Akola, she had moved to the city in 2007 to pursue her ambition to become a doctor.u00a0

MiD DAY report on Nov 10, 2012

The MBBS graduate's life came to a standstill in January when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She spent a few weeks in the Sion Hospital ICU. She was diagnosed with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) a few days later. She received her degree from the hospital's dean in her ICU bed.

Khandare was then shifted to Hinduja hospital where she had been undergoing treatment in the ICU for the last few months. Her colleagues from Sion Hospital managed to raise Rs 4.4 lakh from senior doctors and NGOs for Samidha's treatment.

Dr G Daver, medical director of Hinduja Hospital said, "She was in a critical condition and succumbed to MDR TB around 9.15 pm on Sunday."

MiD DAY had reported in November that 11 doctors from the civic-run Sion Hospital had contracted tuberculosis in the span of one year. Since then, two more doctors from the facility had contracted this deadly disease.

Doctors at the hospital have repeatedly blamed the outbreak of TB to poor ventilation, overcrowding, lack of basic infrastructure and poor hygiene in their squalid living quarters. Even though Sion Hospital doctors were assured that better living conditions would be provided to them, their hostel facilities have remained more or less the same in the last few months.u00a0