A Covid patient at the Atholi Ulliyeri Malabar Medical College, in Kozhikode, has lodged a complaint against a hospital staff on Sunday for trying to sexually abuse her. The hospital employee, Ashwin Krishna, took the patient to the fourth floor of the hospital under the pretext of meeting a doctor and tried to molest her.
The patient was admitted at the hospital on Thursday, while her parents who were also tested Covid positive, were admitted on Sunday. According to the patient, the employee, who got her WhatsApp number from the hospital register, was sending her inappropriate messages.
While she did complain about him to the doctors, they just turned a deaf ear. The employee later dressed in a PPE kit came to her room stating that the doctors would like to see her. As she did not recognize him, she accompanied him. He took her to a deserted area on the fourth floor where he tried to molest her. She somehow managed to escape. Although she filed a complaint to hospital authorities, they tried to shush the incident. The Atholi Police arrived to take her statement after media arrived at the hospital. Political activists marched to the hospital as they pressed for the molester’s arrest. Ashwin has been suspended.
This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred in Covid-hit Kerala. Earlier, a Covid patient in Pathanamthitta was sexually assaulted inside an ambulance by its driver in September. Noufal, the driver of the ambulance, was arrested soon after the incident. Moreover, this isn't the first time that a Covid patient had to go through the apathy of a hospital administration. Recently, a Covid patient was found to have maggot-infested sores on his body after he was discharged from the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College. Action was taken against the people in-charge following a public outrage.
