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Monkeys break into hospital through
new automatic doors
Monkeys are threatening to overrun India’s top hospital after
learning how to operate the newly-installed automatic doors.
Doctors at the flagship All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi
said the horde of red-bottomed rhesus macaque monkeys – who have
roamed the sprawling campus for decades – had figured out how to let
themselves into wards through motion-censor doors.
The compromised wards include the neurosurgery department and nearby
patient recovery rooms, which the monkeys often invade, snatching food,
terrorising medical staff and playing around with sensitive equipment.
They also creating bedlam outside one of the operation theatres, and when
chased away by the hospital security staff hide themselves in the false
ceiling only to re-emerge when the coast was clear to continue their
chaotic activity.
“Some of these monkeys make their way into the wards. At least one
monkey bite case is reported in the hospital every week,” Debjyoti
Karmakar head of the resident doctors association said yesterday.
AIIMS spokesman Y K Gupta, said that the hospital had hired two grey
langurs – another larger breed of monkey = to chase the marauding
macaque monkeys away from the wards and residential areas.
Ironically, Mr Gupta’s office was entirely ransacked some time ago by a
monkey who casually meandered into the premises.
Past efforts to rid the hospital of the primates, descendants of those who
escaped from the Institute’s research laboratories several decades ago
remains handicapped by the majority Hindu religious sentiment that
associates monkeys with the god Hanuman.
Tens of millions of Indians visit Hanuman temples every Tuesday and
anyone trying to trap or scare off monkeys anywhere is beaten up or
chased away. Killing the animals is out of the question.
Instead, as a propitious gesture, relatives and friends accompanying
patients to hospital regularly feed the monkeys hoping “god” will hasten
their recovery.
Over years all of AIMS’ windows had been fitted with wire meshing after
patients surfaced in post-operative wards only to find a monkey sharing
their bed or playing with their glucose or blood transfusion drip.
These emboldened monkeys also attacked doctors and nurses in hospital
corridors and instances of them trying to run away with new born babies
have also been previously reported.
Meanwhile, powerful Indian policy-makers and their equally influential
assistants walk warily down passageways in North and South Blocks that
house amongst others the prime minister’s office and the defence and
home ministries, for fear of being set upon by monkeys, concealed in
niches of the imposing sandstone buildings.
Tough wire meshing also stretches across the windows of the Indian army
chief’s office to protect the head of the world’s third largest and
nuclear-armed military from monkeys.
The Delhi High court too has passed several orders to rid the capital of the
monkey menace but to little avail.
Monkeys break into hospital through new automatic doors - Telegraph
Send in big monkeys to chase away other monkeys. Who will chase away the big monkeys? lol
new automatic doors
Monkeys are threatening to overrun India’s top hospital after
learning how to operate the newly-installed automatic doors.
Doctors at the flagship All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi
said the horde of red-bottomed rhesus macaque monkeys – who have
roamed the sprawling campus for decades – had figured out how to let
themselves into wards through motion-censor doors.
The compromised wards include the neurosurgery department and nearby
patient recovery rooms, which the monkeys often invade, snatching food,
terrorising medical staff and playing around with sensitive equipment.
They also creating bedlam outside one of the operation theatres, and when
chased away by the hospital security staff hide themselves in the false
ceiling only to re-emerge when the coast was clear to continue their
chaotic activity.
“Some of these monkeys make their way into the wards. At least one
monkey bite case is reported in the hospital every week,” Debjyoti
Karmakar head of the resident doctors association said yesterday.
AIIMS spokesman Y K Gupta, said that the hospital had hired two grey
langurs – another larger breed of monkey = to chase the marauding
macaque monkeys away from the wards and residential areas.
Ironically, Mr Gupta’s office was entirely ransacked some time ago by a
monkey who casually meandered into the premises.
Past efforts to rid the hospital of the primates, descendants of those who
escaped from the Institute’s research laboratories several decades ago
remains handicapped by the majority Hindu religious sentiment that
associates monkeys with the god Hanuman.
Tens of millions of Indians visit Hanuman temples every Tuesday and
anyone trying to trap or scare off monkeys anywhere is beaten up or
chased away. Killing the animals is out of the question.
Instead, as a propitious gesture, relatives and friends accompanying
patients to hospital regularly feed the monkeys hoping “god” will hasten
their recovery.
Over years all of AIMS’ windows had been fitted with wire meshing after
patients surfaced in post-operative wards only to find a monkey sharing
their bed or playing with their glucose or blood transfusion drip.
These emboldened monkeys also attacked doctors and nurses in hospital
corridors and instances of them trying to run away with new born babies
have also been previously reported.
Meanwhile, powerful Indian policy-makers and their equally influential
assistants walk warily down passageways in North and South Blocks that
house amongst others the prime minister’s office and the defence and
home ministries, for fear of being set upon by monkeys, concealed in
niches of the imposing sandstone buildings.
Tough wire meshing also stretches across the windows of the Indian army
chief’s office to protect the head of the world’s third largest and
nuclear-armed military from monkeys.
The Delhi High court too has passed several orders to rid the capital of the
monkey menace but to little avail.
Monkeys break into hospital through new automatic doors - Telegraph
Send in big monkeys to chase away other monkeys. Who will chase away the big monkeys? lol
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