Just Compare the media  projection, burden of negligence and accountability of  hundreds of healthy deaths by civic negligence   with one hospital death by disease. In fact the burden of   negligence here in healthy deaths is massive and  these deaths are unpardonable. But reality is opposite. It is just to compare how  a naked “negligence  in deaths of healthy people” in such cases   to the  “alleged and perceived negligence ( with no proof and no investigation )  in death of someone already having disease  and death in hospital”  during treatment  is projected by our society and  media. 

An unfortunate incident   of untimely death of a young and talented person happened yesterday due to civic negligence.  The family lost their dear daughter due to an incident which was totally preventable . Another recent incident was of unlicensed school vans being driven rashly, again leading to  entirely preventable loss of lives. These incidents bring fore to my mind the misplaced priorities of media and society  which too have  contributed to  some extent to these unabated ongoing preventable   deaths  of  hundreds of  healthy people.

An open drain and a poorly lit road claimed the life of a young executive in Noida in the early hours of Wednesday. The victim, Tania Khanna was driving  car that plunged into the eight-foot-wide drain. Such a huge drain has been left uncovered and there is no proper mechanism of streets lights in the area. There is also no CCTV camera installed there. Noida Authority officials did not respond to requests for a comment.

An open drain next to a road with no barrier or signage and not even street lighting is a recipe for disaster. No civilized part of the world would allow such a situation to exist. That this particular area is still in the process of being developed is beside the point. Whether an area is fully developed or is being developed, there should either be no open drain or if there is one that has not yet been covered, it must be clearly separated from the road and pavements by barriers. There should also be clear signs warning people of the potential danger and lighting to ensure they can see it. That this is not done amounts to negligence by the civic authorities, for which individual accountability must be fixed and action taken.

Multiple  Deaths  in healthy people by civic negligence :

Large numbers of death and morbidity happen amongst absolutely healthy population due to preventable causes like open manholes, drains, live electric wires, water contamination, dengue, malaria, recurring floods  etc. Which somehow are never made as headlines or breaking news by media due to lack of sensational substance. These deaths  of people are in thousands, and are almost entirely of healthy people, who otherwise were not at risk of death. In fact the burden of   negligence here is massive and  these deaths are unpardonable.  It’s time media took it upon itself to bring to fore these issues so that many innocent lives of  many more healthy people like Tania can be saved.

       Single  Death in Hospital due to disease:

The  media has always, instead, focused on the stray  and occasional incidents of perceived alleged negligence  in hospital deaths which could have occurred due to critical medical condition of patient. However an impression is created as if the doctors have killed a healthy person. It is assumed without any investigation that it was doctor’s fault.  Media has been responsible for  creating a misunderstanding about the whole process of treatment . The patient coming to hospital already is diseased and some are critical and have a finite percent chance of death. The doctor tries his best to treat him but  may not always succeed. Making an issue out of a hospital death of a sick patient despite the doctors’ best efforts may get some high viewership to the paper but is it right?  No. They have ignored other important things like civic negligence and has instead trained their entire energy in  blaming the doctors  in an effort  to get something sensational out of nothing.

The whole blame  is cleverly put  on doctors. Even after doing everything possible, doctor may be running for his life, trying to save himself from goons. He may be an object for revenge. He may be running after lawyers, if a medical lawsuit is filed. He may have to stand like a culprit in front of relatives of deceased, who can abuse or threaten him in the language they choose, in garb of emotional outburst. Doctors are advised in such situations to be calm and suffer silently or just apologize, as it is thought to be correct in front of relatives stuck with grief. Even if court give the judgement after decades in favor of doctor, harassment of the doctor is permanent and irreversible damage is  done  to doctor. He is already punished.

Here it will be seen later, whether some one can be punished or not.

Point to ponder-Misplaced priorities:

Who is to be  blamed for  the deaths of healthy people which occur because of civic negligence? Here relatives may be helpless and  the vital questions  may go unanswered or taken as a routine.  There are no punching bags like doctor  for revenge. Any stray incident of death of an already ill patient is blown out of proportion by media forgetting the fact that thousands of patients are saved everyday by  doctors. But media instead chose to defame medical profession by igniting the emotions of people by sensationalising death of diseased and ill,  who probably were already at risk of death and did not give due importance to highlighting prevention of healthy  and absolutely 100% preventable deaths.

      Is  it due to a misplaced priorities of  the media or in an effort to create sensational news? Had media made an appropriate noise about right  issues and scratched the right pole for  preventing  death of healthy people , Tania might have been alive today and thousands more.