Thiruvananthapuram Nov 6 (IANS) Venu, who died without receiving treatment at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and Hospital, is a victim of “Arogyakeralam on ventilator”, Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said on Thursday, holding state Health Minister Veena George and the Pinarayi Vijayan government squarely responsible for the tragedy.

“Venu did not merely die, he was killed by the collapse of the Health Department and the administrative machinery that this government has destroyed over the past nine and a half years. The Health Minister and the government cannot escape responsibility,” Satheesan said in a strongly worded statement.

He demanded that Venu’s voice message be treated as a dying declaration and a case of murder be registered against those responsible.

The 48-year-old autorickshaw driver, a native of Panmana in Kerala’s Kollam, had been admitted to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and Hospital last week after being referred from the Kollam District Hospital for an emergency angiogram.

Despite doctors recommending immediate surgery, his family alleged that treatment was not provided even after six days.

The controversy deepened after an audio message that Venu had sent to a friend hours before his death surfaced, in which he accused hospital authorities of apathy and corruption.

In the voice clip, he lamented that “no one even looks at patients with concern — not even the way one would look at a dog”, and alleged that the hospital functioned as “a centre of bribery”.

He also urged his friend to make his plight known if anything happened to him.

Venu’s death on Wednesday night, shortly after sending the message, triggered widespread outrage.

When his body was brought to his residence near Kollam, angry Congress-led UDF workers took to the streets, protesting what they described as the “collapse of Kerala’s once model public health system”.

Hospital authorities have denied negligence, maintaining that all necessary treatment was given and that the patient’s condition deteriorated suddenly.

However, Satheesan said the Health Minister’s admission of “systemic failure” was itself proof of decay. “If ordinary citizens continue to die for want of care in government hospitals, the Minister has no moral right to remain in office,” he said, demanding her resignation.

–IANS

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