Man dies by suicide at GRH rabies ward
A 25-year-old man allegedly killed himself at the rabies isolation ward at Government Rajaji Hospital during early hours of Saturday.
According to the police, A. Balamurugan, a resident of Avaniyapuram, was bitten by a cat at his house about two months ago. Instead of treating the bite, he had injected Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccine from a nearby clinic, the police added.
While it appeared like he was getting cured, recently, about a week ago, he displayed weird symptoms like hesitancy to water (hydrophobia), difficulty in breathing, fever, among others, the police added.
Following this, he was admitted to a private hospital here. As the doctors confirmed the presence of rabies virus in his body, they sent him to GRH, the police added.
In a precarious condition, he was taken to the rabies ward of GRH. As he turned violent due to the infection, he was put in the isolated rabies ward on the hospital premises, GRH doctors said.
The hospital staff found him dead inside the cell early morning. 'The preliminary investigation said due to unbearable pain and unstable mind, he killed himself,' they added.
S. Saravanan, Resident Medical Officer, said though he died by suicide, it could not be assured that he could have been treated.
'As the virus has completely infected his body, he showed all the symptoms of rabies. Any treatment for the virus will not do good to treat the patient at this stage,' he added.
Dr. Saravanan said that for any animal bite, administering the anti-rabies vaccine as a precautionary measure to protect oneself from the virus was a must.
'Even when a person is badly injured by any animal bite, notwithstanding the seriousness of the injury, the person could be saved from getting infected by the virus,' he pointed out.
While post mortem would not be usually performed on the deceased died of rabies virus infection due to the possibility of the spread of virus, in this case, as the patient died of suicide, with necessary precautions, post mortem was performed, he added.
As per the procedure, the mortal remains were handed over to Madurai Corporation for doing the final rites, he said.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State's health helpline 104, Tele-MANAS 14416, Sneha's suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050 and Speak2Us helpline at 9375493754.)
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