Kajal Iyer, Mumbai: Mumbai's premier medical institution, J J hospital is caught in a new controversy.

Forty-five- year-old Ratnakar Mahankal was admitted for an emergency operation for a ruptured tendon in his left hand at Mumbai's premier medical institution, J J hospital. But a simple surgery turned out to be a traumatic experience because his preliminary blood test done by a private lab, declared him HIV positive.

Says Ratnakar, “I had become mad. I felt like jumping off from the JJ building itself.”

“I became very worried about my children's future,” adds Ratnakar’s wife Pallavi.

Hospital authorities say that as Ratnakar was admitted at night and his tests had to be done in a private lab. Ratnakar was then asked to undergo another blood test at the hospital the next day. This report came out to be negative.”

We don't rely on reports by private labs. We always confirm twice and we told him that he is negative,” says Dean, J J hospital, Dr Pravin Shingare.

The hospital may term this flip flop as a mere mistake but one look at the streets around J J hospital infested with private labs expose a deep rooted problem.

Patients allege that they are often referred to these run down private labs due to a nexus between the doctors and the labs.

Meanwhile, Ratnakar's case has now forced the hospital to order an inquiry into the matter.

“The hospital authorities felt that a committee should be set up to look into the matter,” says Dr Shingare.

But the hospital's assurances have done little to ease to Ratnakar's troubled mind.

“After they discharged me the staff behaved with me in a very rude way. It was very painful,” says Ratnakar. The government of India just reduced its AIDS estimates by about 50 per cent. One wonders how many Ratnakars contributed to the inflated figures.