India, Aug. 15 -- For Ram Soni, a trip to a civic hospital after a leg injury should have ended with a plaster cast. Instead, the patient walked out with pieces of discarded cardboard strapped to his fractured leg, an alleged shortage of plaster of Paris (POP) at the KDMC-run Rukminibai Hospital in Dombivli leaving his family stunned, resulting in outrage among local residents.

Ram, a resident of Beturkarpada in Kalyan, was rushed to the hospital on Thursday afternoon after injuring his leg. An X-ray confirmed the fracture. But when his son Abhay took him to the dressing room, the family was allegedly told that plaster was unavailable and that they would have to pay to procure it from outside if they wanted his father's leg plastered. "W...