Alarming negligence

The sheet on Abdul Quddus' bed at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital was not white. The colour had faded. There were splodges of mucus and pus from his burnt leg. Marks of the ointment put on his leg were all over the sheet. It reeked. It was a filthy bed sheet.

Quddus had no way to get a fresh one. He had been on that particular sheet for around 20 days.

"I have repeatedly asked the nurses for a clean bed sheet. But they did not replace it," Quddus said on Friday lying on the sheet and surrounded by many other burn victims.

Quddus, who underwent a surgery in his right foot on December 1 following an infection a year ago, fears getting infected again sleeping on such a dirty sheet.

"Something horrible could happen," he said.  

Like Quddus, many burn patients vulnerable to infections, were receiving treatment in the Green, Blue and Red units on dirty sheets. 

The Daily Star correspondent did not go into the Intensive Care and High Dependency units of the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of the hospital as entry to those were officially restricted.

According to doctors, the bed sheets for patients should be changed every other day. If any patient, especially with burn injuries, was being treated on such dirty sheets for days, he or she might get infections.

The Daily Star correspondent talked to at least 40 patients on Thursday and Friday and found that they had been on the same sheets from 10 to 35 days.

Partha Sankar Paul, resident surgeon of the burn unit, said they change the sheets at the intensive care and high dependency units every day or every other day as most critical patients get treated there.

The sheets for other patients get replaced every three to five days, depending on the condition of the patients, he said, adding that there was no shortage of sheets. 

Many patients said they had to use their own sheets or other clothes after their repeated call for replacing the sheets went in vain.

They know infections often delay recovery of patients and sometimes even cause deaths.

Those who were not so well off or had come to the hospital from outside Dhaka had no other way but to use the dirty sheets.

"We use the hospital provided bed sheet and a piece of our clothes by turns," said Mansura Begum, whose sister Latifa Begum was being treated there.

Latifa was admitted to the burn unit on November 13 with injuries to the lower part of her body from a cooking stove accident. 

Technically she got her bed sheet changed once between November 13 and December 18, when this correspondent talked to her. However, that was due to her being moved to another bed.

Latifa did not know if she got a fresh bed sheet or a used one when she was moved.

The burn unit played an outstanding role in treating patients during political violence over the last two years. It was extraordinary when it had to treat overwhelming number of patients with limited supply of medicine, facilities, and equipment.

Prof Sazzad Khondokar, project director of the unit, said they some times have problems since they daily treat around double the patients they have the facilities for. Besides, the laundry some times delays in delivering sheets.   

"As a clean bed sheet is essential for a patient, we are trying to solve the problem," he said.