Sonu Laskar: Pillar to post. Picture by Pabitra Das

A six-year-old boy, suffering from thalassaemia, requires an urgent surgery to fix his enlarged spleen. But he is also HIV-infected, and that seems reason enough for doctors at state-run hospitals to refuse to operate on him.

Sonu Laskar, son of a daily-wager father, had been under treatment for thalassaemia at NRS Medical College and Hospital since mid-2001.

In May 2004, the Sonarpur boy was found to be suffering from the HIV infection, too.

Around seven months ago, his spleen became enlarged, necessitating an urgent operation. But doctors at NRS refused to operate on him and referred him to Medical College and Hospital (MCH), without assigning any reason.

At MCH, he was first examined in the special HIV cell. “His spleen was so enlarged that he required surgical intervention. His parents were ready to go ahead with the surgery. So, we referred him to our paediatric surgery department,” said a doctor in the special HIV cell.

A surgeon in the paediatric surgery department had written in the clinical note of Sonu (a copy of which is with Metro): “The patient has been refused surgery at NRS as he is HIV-positive.”

The department asked Sonu’s parents to get blood tests and an ECG done. In April, the boy was referred to SSKM Hospital.

But SSKM did not treat the boy, either. It referred him back to MCH on May 3, on the grounds that the boy was “treated previously in the department of paediatric surgery” of that hospital.

“A doctor at SSKM told me that it was the responsibility of MCH to conduct the surgery, as my son was HIV-positive,” said Sonu’s father Siraj. On May 17, as Siraj and his wife Karima brought their son back to MCH, the hospital refused to carry out the surgery and referred him to “any hospital” with an ICU.

“They said my son had a cardiac problem and could not be operated on there,” said Karima.

“Doesn’t MCH have an ICU? These hospitals are not operating on the boy because he is HIV-positive,” said Khitish Mondal, board member of the Bengal Network of Positive People, which works for those affected with HIV/AIDS.