HC notice to govt over child deaths at Indore’s MY Hospital

The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court on Thursday slapped notices on the state government and senior officials in connection with the death of two children, who were administered nitrous oxide instead of oxygen, at the state-run Maharaja Yeshwantrao (MY) Hospital last week.

While hearing a public interest litigation filed by Pramod Dwivedi on Tuesday, the vacation bench of high court expressed displeasure over “the state of affairs in MY Hospital,” and issued notices to the state principal secretary, Indore divisional commissioner, district collector, superintendent of MY Hospital and dean of MGM College, directing them to submit a detailed report about the children’s death within 10 days.

The petitioner demanded immediate suspension of and initiate strict action against doctors on duty and authorities responsible for the deaths of the two children.

Dwivedi in his petition alleged that the death of the children was due to the negligence of doctors and they should be brought to book.

On May 28, an infant, who was admitted at the hospital died after hospital staff administered nitrous oxide–used as sedative–instead of oxygen. Another baby who was subjected to same mistake died on the following day.

An internal probe revealed that there was a mix-up in the pipes carrying the two gases to the respiratory equipment at the newly constructed paediatric unit.

Soon after the incident, the hospital administration started shielding doctors and transferred blame on the public works department contractor, who had set up the paediatric intensive care unit.

Sources revealed that even after repeated requests of the contractor, the hospital authorities did not check if the newly set up unit is fit for use or not.

The petitioner has also demanded that a compensation of Rs 25 lakh be given to the families of the children and the money be recovered from people responsible for the deaths.

Five-member team quizzes MY staff

A five-member investigation team from Bhopal visited Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital on Thursday and initiated probe into the death of two children.

Headed by Dr Shashi Gandhi, other members of the team included Dr Aditya Agrawal, Dr Rajendra Dhratlahare, Dr Jyotsana Shrivastava and Prabhat Shrivastava of public works department. Principal secretary (medical education) Prabhanshu Kamal formed investigation panel to probe the issue.

The team interrogated MY Hospital dean Dr MK Rathore about tenders passed by the medical college for building the OT. Besides inspecting the OT, the team also checked the gas supply line.