One more person committed suicide at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital on Wednesday.
The deceased has been identified as Murugan, 38, a resident of Nedumangad Housing Board Colony. He hails from Tamil Nadu.
He was suspected of having COVID-19 and was undergoing treatment.
The incident occurred just hours after Unni, a 33-year-old Anad native took his own life while undergoing treatment in the Corona ward here.
Both of them were likely to be discharged soon as their results had returned negative, hospital authorities informed.
The deaths point to a serious lapse in the monitoring of patients at the hospital. Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja has ordered an enquiry into the death, entrusting the Director of the Department of Medical Education with the task.
The Human Rights Commission took a suo moto case on the matter. It has sought a report from the medical education director and hospital superintendent on the incident. The report is to be submitted within three weeks.
First suicide
Earlier on Wednesday, Unni was found hanging in the ward a day after his escape was foiled.
He was said to be suffering from alcohol withdrawal symptom.
He was brought to the hospital on May 28 after he fell unconscious while boozing with friends. The very next day, he was declared positive.
He had reportedly gone to Tamil Nadu to get liquor on the sly.
Health authorities had earlier said it was hard to prepare his route map as he was non-cooperative. Even then 40 of his friends and close family members have been put in quarantine.
On June 7, his second test showed negative. For him to be discharged, one more test had to show negative. Before his second consecutive result could come, the man escaped from the ward on June 9.
He first took an autorickshaw and then a public bus to reach his village Anad, in the outskirts of the capital city. Along the way, he had food in a hotel in Nedumangad.
He got out of the hospital ward in his hospital whites and mask. Since everyone was wearing a mask, no one suspected he was a patient.
It was a shop owner who had his shop near his house who first noticed the escapee. He quickly informed the tehsildar and Anad panchayat president Suresh Kumar S. The police and health authorities, too, arrived on the spot.
An ambulance was also ready. But the man resisted efforts to take him back to the hospital. "It was not clear what he was trying to say. He seemed to be in a strange state of mind," Suresh told Onmanorama. Finally, the police had to point a gun at him for him to get into the ambulance. It is suspected that he could have gone to his house to fetch a bottle that he would have hidden somewhere.
Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja has ordered an enquiry into his death. The Director of the Department of Medical Education has been entrusted with the task. The Human Rights Commision too has sought a report from the medical education director and hospital superintendent on the incident. The report is to be submitted within three weeks.
