Bedsheet for the Dead Body

Kamalji · Oct 5, 2007

Bedsheet for the Dead Body

Yesterday we friends were playing cards as usual .And the topic turned to the hospitals and what goes on.

My dear friend's mother died when i was away in Indonesia,I sent him my condolenses from there.She was suffering from cancer for quite a while,and it was just a matter of time.I had met her a few days before my departure,she was at home,sitting on the bed,looking cheerful despite the pain she was going through.She blessed me for a private reason,which i cant state here.How was i to know this was to be our last meeting.

She suddenly took very ill,and they shifted her to a private Nursing home close by.After 2 days,she lost the battle and she was no more.the friend borrowed money,as this happened at short notice,and spent around 1.25 lakhs in those two days.

As they called the Ambulance to take the body home,the hospital removed the bedsheet covering her,and when my friend requested them to give him the bedsheet, the hospital refused even on payment,and told them to arrange a bedsheet themselves.

The Bahu drove home to get one,and it took her an hour to come back.Only then they were allowed to go home.

I was shocked to hear this,what is a bedsheet for a dead woman ?After having taken more than a lakh, dont u have the courtesy and kindness to give away a bedsheet to the dead woman.And in this hour of grief,the children were sent on a leather hunt for a bedsheet ?There is nothing more callous and shocking that i have come across.

Are we supposed to take a sick person to hospital,along with the bedsheet,to make sure if the sick becomes the dead,we should have the bedsheet ready with us?Is this the medical profession these days ?

Another friend told an interesting tale of the bedsheet.His friend staying in mumbai told him this.A man jumped from a skyscraper and died immediately,after having a scrap with his wife.The wife refused to even come down to do something.The other buidling people immediately came down with dozens of white bedsheets to cover the corpse,and call the ambulance and doctor.Strangers do this, but not the hospital?

I read a very impressive article a few years back.A person in Mumbai,works in an organiszation,and travels by train daily.Between Malad and Churchgate.He often saw rail victims lying on the platform, with news papers covering the bloodied body,and flies swarming all over.

This gentleman felt something should be done.So he went and bought bedsheets and gave to all the railway stations that fall under his travelling distance,adozen each to each station,and told them to cover the dead with a clean white bedsheet.He says a dead person at least deserves a clean cloth to cover him in his l;ast moments.It dosnt matter the person is rich or poor,Hindu or Muslim,he or she is entitled to this small dignity in his or her last moments of life.

And he has appealed to the public that a bedsheet costs just 22/- and people can either call him,email him or directly contribute by buying bedsheet and giving to the railway police.

Hats off to you Gentleman.If a guy like u dosnt go to heaven, who will.Kamal salutes you.

I wish to ask I Lites on their views on this subject,as also their expierences with the sick and the hospitals.

Thank you, and i am sorry to have brough such a morbid subject in front of you.But i was too moved by this ,and wanted to share it with u.

Thank you.

Kamal Mahtani

Nivedi · Oct 5, 2007

Another sorry state of affairs, Kamalji. Our tryst with mundane rules, regulations and red tape does not allow even the dead to go in peace. And all the rules and regulations apply to the common folks.

The Government General Hospital and Children's Hospital in Chennai has hundreds of poor paitients lining in everyday. I used to do some vountary work there as part of NSS in school. To get admitted for a serious ailment, one needs to grease the palms of the Ward boys. Then to get a bed, grease some more. Lucky, if you get a bed after having paid. Otherwise, one has to find a 4 ft space on the floor which is already crowded with many paitients and their families. And then comes the food part. Free food is distributed everday and you pay something for the staff who supply the food. The doctor who comes on visit looks and says that he can do nothing in this hospital, so asks the paitient to come over to his private clinic. And think of the plight of terminally ill poor paitients - they esperience hell even before departing from the world.

srinivasan_vanaja · Oct 5, 2007

hi,

hats off to that person who gave bedsheets to the railway stations to cover accident victims.

well said! i could understand the wrath and agony of that person and his kind heart.

Hospitals see lot of accidents and deaths. It is of course a very disheartening point, that their values to human lives stay only till settlement of the bill.

regards,

vanaja

Blondie · Oct 6, 2007

Thinking retrospectively all the elders in my family had the good fortune to take their last breath in their own homes. Only when faced with this type of incidents that one thinks about about mortality and the minimal respect that the just departed deserve.

Yes the hospitals and doctors main goal seems to be to milk out the max cash that they can by keeping the obviously heaven bound patients (even the very elderly) on life support instead of the old school doctor's method of resolving the kith and kin to the fact and making their last days as comfortable as possible. Especially in India even the most educated are struck clueless when faced with an emergency.

There are organisations and volunteer groups here that make sure even the homeless get a decent funeral. We certainly need some thing like that in India.

Kamalji please let me know the gentleman's contact, email info here so that souls like me can make our humble contributions to his effort.

Kamalji · Oct 6, 2007

Blondie,

Thanks.I will have to search out that artcile which i had cut out,and i too will give.

Give me a day or two please.Thanks and regards.kamal

Srinivasan,

the sad point is, this callousness is expected from GoVt Hospitals.But private nursing hiomes, who charge a bomb, cant they give the dead a bedsheet costing a few hundred, and charge for the same? shameful really.

Thanks and regards.kamal

Nivedi,

Sad state of affairs really.If a person like u and me go visit someone in a hospital, we are also half dead,seeing things there.

Regards.kamal

Shanvy · Oct 6, 2007

hi kamalji,

Good topic. I have actually seen the gentleman, about whom you mentioned, in one of the tv news channel. (Was it during the bombblasts..dont remember...)

but thats is the scenario in hospitals these days....
It happens in all hospitals. The way you are treated until you settle the bill and then getting the body home everything is a horror to your mental state....
It is the same whether it is a govt/prvt hospital.

There are few organisations which do service for helping out in the funeral and all in india. we need more.

We say a dead person, has to be treated with respect... forget respect, sometimes, even basic humanity..is missing....

Vysan · Oct 6, 2007

Dear Kamalji,

Yes, hospitals are becoming ruthless... The doctors keep their humanity and all at home and come to the hospitals... This brings me very sad reminders of what happened to my mom... Though I cant talk about a big hospital in a open forum... In my opinion what they have done is a big blunder... Since both me & my brother are in overseas... we couldnt do anything about that... I dont know whether these people have some sort of consi... or not...

I really sometimes feel bad and feel like..... Sorry for being emotional...

It is nice to hear that atleast somebody does some humanitarian act... May GOD bless him and the society encourage these sort of people to come forward and do some good things....

Veda

Kamalji · Oct 9, 2007

shanti,

yes true that a dead body should be treated with respect.but it is not so.Sad.Regards.kamal

Veda

sorry about yr mother.my dad also died in hospital during an operation due to the negligency from docs.He wa hale and hearty just had gone for an eye operation.Well what to say Veda.

There are some really nice people, who will go out f their way for unknown humans.I trreat them bigger than Gods and Gurus.Thansk and regards.kamal