Patient pays for kin's superstition

BENGALURU: Bengaluru may be making waves with its technological strides, but ironically superstitions are still alive posing threat to lives less than 100 km away from the capital.
The condition of a 22-year-old brain cancer patient aggravated as her parents took her to tantriks instead of doctors when she started showing symptoms of the disease.
Sujatha from Huliyuridurga, Kunigal taluk in Tumkur district, is in a critical condition in the ICU of Nimhans where she was operated upon Tuesday."She should have been brought here earlier," Nimhans authorities said. She was brought to Nimhans on November 1.
"We are told she has stage IV brain cancer. Had we brought her earlier, there may have been chances of improvement," DM Kumar, Sujatha's uncle, told TOI .
He said her parents, DM Gangadharaiah and Gowramma, took her to tantriks thinking she was possessed by evil spirits. "Local doctors could not diagnose her problem. A couple of months ago, there was a death in the neighbourhood and she started acting weird. They thought she was possessed ," he said.
Sujatha, who was working in a rural bank, stopped going to office six months ago.
A month ago, Sujatha stopped speaking as she was not able to pronounce any word. She was taken to a private hospital in Tumkur where doctors suggested them to take her to Nimhans.