Bloody Patient Spent Whole Night Tied Up

Thirty-four-year-old Vartan Gasparian will be discharged from Asatiani Mental Hospital on October 8. His family members claim that it is dangerous to keep him in the family-he threw down his ill mother on the floor short time ago. The woman has insult and she cannot get out of the bed. There is nobody to look after the mentally disabled person at home. As for medical personnel of the hospital, they state that according to the new law they cannot keep the patient in hospital more than forty-five days.

Ernest Gasparian, brother of the mentally disabled person, spoke about the difficult situation in the mental hospital though public does not have information about it at all. Several facts that took place for the last ten days are enough to have exact image of the real situation. In this article we will draw your attention to Kutiri and Asatiani Mental hospitals.

Ernest Gasparian said that his mentally disabled brother is too dangerous for surrounding people. Besides schizophrenia he has epilepsy and is very aggressive. His health conditions have particularly worsened for the last four years. He was placed in mental hospital twice since that time.

Initially, the hospital accepted him without any problems but for the second time, more precisely in December of 2007 it was difficult to leave the sick man in the hospital. “They told us he was very sick and disturbed the situation in the hospital,” said Ernest Gasparian.

Early in September, after the disabled person threw his mother down on the floor and nearly killed her, repeated medical treatment became necessary for him.

However, Asatiani Mental Hospital accepted Vartan Gasparian after patrol police involved the situation. It must be pointed out that the mentally disabled person was treated by two psychiatrists before he was placed at Mental Hospital and the record on his medical treatment stated that he had bad reaction on the medicine “Halupelidol”. That medicine could cause epileptic fit in the sick person and if Diazepam was not immediately injected into the bloodstream it would become impossible to handle him.

Despite the situation, Erik Gasparian said that his brother was injected in muscle instead bloodstream and epileptic attack lasted during 24 hours.

“If you do not tie up his hands, he scratches his faces, pulls down his mouth…it becomes impossible to handle him.”

Vartan Gasparian spent the whole night tied up in similar situation. He was not taken to the toilet. Arriving at hospital, brothers and mother found him in excrements and blood.

“They could at least clean his face. Is not it nurses’ duty?!” asked Erik Gasparian. Maybe the personnel thought that relatives would not visit similar patient and did not pay attention to him. However, the family brought linen and all other things of necessity to the hospital for the patient. 

Ernest Gasparian, together with his second brother (they are all three) is looking for the way out from their difficult situation. If their mentally disabled brother remains at home alone, he will damage himself or their ill mother.

Representatives of the Asatiani Hospital categorically deny the facts of human rights violation in their hospital. Doctor who treated Gasparian, (she preferred to stay anonymous) said that she had not seen her patient in similar situation but she inquired about it with nurses who categorically denied accusations. The doctor added that the patient feels better and will be discharged from the hospital on October 8 because under the new law hospital does not have right to keep patients more than 45 days if he feels better. The Gasparianis asked what their family can do with the patient after he is discharged from the hospital and the doctor answered they should take the sick man to Bediani Mental Hospital where permanent patients are treated.

Neither the mental hospitals located in regions can boast for their good conditions. For example, everybody praised Kutiri hospital, but two famous accidents occurred in that hospital when patients were seriously injured. The Public Defender’s Office is still investigating those facts.

Khatuna Jajanidze’s father, Jora Jajanidze was discharged from Kutiri Mental Hospital and the daughter applied to the Public Defender’s Office. Medical record on the patient states that he started treatment at Asatiani Hospital and then he returned to Chiatura; however, his health conditions seriously worsened at home (he smashed windows) and finally he was taken to Kutiri hospital.

Khatuna Jajanidze was given telephone numbers of Tengo Fantsulaia, director of the hospital and doctor Nino Kakabadze. Two weeks later Ms. Khatuna called the doctor who said that her father could not sleep and they were going to make some changes in the treatment.

In July, they called Ms. Khatuna from the hospital and informed her that her father had “apparent death”.

Ms. Khatuna arrived in Kutiiri immediately where she found her father in the corridor. “Duvet was over him. He had long hair full of lice. He was lying in his excrements. He was wearing torn and dirty clothes.”

The patient had necroses and wounds on the bottom. He had bites on the whole body. There were numerous bleeding cuts on limbs and feet. He had bruises on his head. His ear was also cut. Jajnidze protested the situation but hospital staff asked not to inform the director about it.

The patient was taken to Tbilisi Hospital # 8; however, the doctors refused to treat him because he was not their patient and demanded the woman to leave their hospital immediately. 

Gocha Bakuradze, director of the Kutiri Mental Hospital said that the recent campaign against their hospital might have originated by the appointment of the new Minister of Healthcare who would like to change personnel in hospitals. He added that “Kutiri is the only hospital that does not face the danger of being closed down and continues development. There might be somebody who does not like our progress. It is strange that recent accidents all happened in Samegrelo Region. We have enough medicines; we have consultants in every field at the hospital; however, we do not have enough money to treat those people who do not have mental problems. Anyway, if somebody wants to find anything wrong on our activities they can find it despite all our effort to look after patients properly.”

“They seem to dislike me on this position because I have close relationship with international organizations and everybody observes that we succeed…”

“I cannot exclude the possibility that personnel really made some mistakes. But you will never see any dirty patient with lice here,” said Gocha Bakuradze.

Representatives of the Public Defender’s Office are still investigating that concrete accident at the mental hospital. One of them, Archil Talakvadze said that almost all mental hospitals have similar problems in Georgia.

“It is strange that as soon as directors are resigned at Mental Hospitals, the situation is changed. The point is that medical personnel-nurses and sanitarians are not well-qualified people. They do not know anything about human rights and think that they always right. We will appeal to the Prosecutor’s Office by all means and demand to investigate the fact.”

Eka Kevanishvili, Tbilisi