Medical negligence? Youth’s kin block highway, demand justice

The family members of a 21-year-old man, who died at a private hospital in the city on Wednesday, accused the hospital authorities of medical negligence and staged a protest on the Manesar highway on Thursday demanding action against the doctors, who they claimed, are responsible for his death.

Claiming he had no history of any medical complications, the family members of the deceased Deepak Yadav, a resident of Manesar, filed a complaint with the Gurgaon police alleging medical negligence. The 21-year-old was pursuing his MBA, the kin said.

According to the complaint filed with the police, the doctors at Gurgaon’s Civil Hospital had diagnosed Deepak with having fluid in his lungs and he was advised to seek specialised medical treatment for his condition. Deepak was also struck by typhoid a week ago, his kin said.

On February 19, Deepak was admitted to Paras hospital at Sushant Lok-1 where the doctors were treating him for his condition, then police said.

The family members also pointed out that on Wednesday morning, Deepak’s condition had improved and he was supposed to be released from the hospital. However, the doctors conducted some more tests on the same day after which Deepak’s condition deteriorated and he died later in the day, his kin claimed.

Read I Gurgaon: Man dies in hospital, family alleges medical negligence

“Around 12 noon, Deepak died. He was put on ventilator for a few hours and then the doctors declared him dead. This is sheer negligence on the part of the doctors. Deepak’s condition deteriorated after the doctors conducted some blood tests,” Kailash Kumar, uncle of the 21-year-old who had filed the complaint, said.

The complaint was lodged with the Sector 43 police post, which comes under Sushant Lok-I police station.

Police said that they have started an investigation and will send a copy of the complaint to the chief medical officer, Gurgaon Civil Hospital, before filing an FIR.

“We have received the complaint and we will be conducting a probe into the matter. We will be sending the report to health department for verifying facts. We cannot establish a medical negligence case unless it is confirmed by the panel of doctors (set up to probe the negligence complaint),” inspector Sudeep Kumar, station house officer (SHO), Sushant Lok Police station, said.

However, the hospital released a statement saying that the doctors provided the best treatment to the patient. “We have been completely transparent in our approach. The patient was being treated for pleural effusion and had a sudden cardiac arrest. Multi disciplinary teams were working on the patient. Throughout the course of treatment, the patient’s family was updated on his progress. We are with the family (at this hour) and extend our full support. The family has filed an FIR and we are open to any investigation. We are ready and willing to extend full cooperation and support to the authorities,” a spokesperson for Paras Healthcare said.

The incident is the latest in a series of medical negligence cases against private hospitals which has come to the fore of late.

In one of these cases, a woman, who was admitted to the Colombia Asia Hospital in Palam Vihar on January 8, died 18 days after of complications after a gall bladder surgery. The family of the 47-year-old lodged a complaint with the Palam Vihar police station accusing the hospital staff of medical negligence.

On November 22, a seven-year-old boy suffering from dengue and admitted to the Medanta-The Medicity hospital, died. Shaurya was lodged at Medanta from October 29 to November 20 before his condition deteriorated and he was shifted to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. He later succumbed at the RML hospital. His father, Bhupender Singh Parmar, lodged a complaint with the Sadar police station alleging medical negligence.

In another case, an FIR was filed on December 9 under section 304 (2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC against one of the doctors of Fortis hospital, who was involved in the treatment of seven-year-old Adya Singh, who died of dengue in September.