A number of patients admitted at Saint Giles Hospital are
taking special release to see witch doctors.
And some of these patients are physically-tortured by the witch doctors during
rituals.
St Giles Medical Superintendent Dr Shish Narayan yesterday confirmed that
realatives of patients come in groups demanding release.
Dr Narayan said it was alarming to hear relatives telling him most the
inpatients at the hospital were possessed by some devilish powers’.
He said patients often showed him injuries inflicted on them by witch doctors
in their effort to drive the evil spirits out of them. He said patients told
him of how they were whipped and their hair pulled during rituals and how at
times, chilly powder is rubbed in their eyes all to scare the evil spirits
they are supposedly possessed with.
Dr Narayan said he had three to five cases daily, where relatives argued with
him over patients.
This has been happening for ages. I would say some 95 per cent of the patients
admitted here for mental disorders have been to the witch doctors before coming
here, he said.
This has been a common practice in all communities. Both, the Indians and
Fijians seem to believe in witch craft. Some of the people go to the extreme
with witch craft. They have spent thousands of dollars and time running after
witch doctors.
Dr Narayan said relatives argued that witch doctors had powers to drive out
evil spirits.
Most people are living with a misconception ... when they see mentally-sick
patients shouting, singing, talking to themselves and shaking themselves they
feel these people are possessed. In the case when a patient has epilepsy
(fits), some are convinced the devil/evil spirit or a goddess is possessing
him/her who is dying to be released, Dr Narayan said.
Some family members get violent and aggressive with us when we refuse to
approve the release of the patients. These people do not realise that people
with mental disorders act abnormally. They will feel they do not belong to this
world and act weird. It is a condition which can be kept under control with
special medication.
Dr Narayan said some patients who had been to witch doctors were now back at
the hospital undergoing medical treatment.
Some of these patients had been whipped by the witch doctors and their hair
pulled out. I have seen a woman whose scalp was removed in a ritual practised
by the witch doctor. It is normal when a person is whipped, he will shout and
cry. People should not mistake it for a devil’s cry, Dr Narayan said.
He said people should be sensible and leave sick ones in the hands of qualified
medical personnel.
It could be that some families are pressured by other family members to seek the
services of witch doctors. I have seen families fight over the issue. Some ask
us to prescribe medicine for the patients even they take them to witch
doctors, he said.