‘Indore hospital docs kept my dead son on ventilator for over a day’

The father of a baby who recently died at the state-run Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital has accused doctors of keeping his dead son on ventilator for more than 35 hours to avoid media glare.

Admitted on May 23, Rajveer was accidentally given nitrous oxide, a widely used anaesthetic, during surgery on May 28. Another infant Ayush had died the same day after he too inhaled nitrous oxide.

In an affidavit filed before the Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court a week ago, Balu Prajapat stated his son Rajveer may have died on the very day he underwent surgery for hypospadias (a condition in which the urethra is not developed completely) on May 28.

The high court had issued notices to the state government and the hospital authorities on Thursday last in connection with the infant deaths.

Doctors had declared Rajveer brain dead on the morning of May 29 and kept him on ventilator for 35 hours during which efforts were made to revive him.

But Prajapat alleged his son was already dead and he was kept on ventilator for more than 35 hours. “The doctors and hospital administration came under the media’s scrutiny after Ayush died on May 28. Hence, they did not declare Rajveer dead then,” Prajapat told HT.

Prajapat said the hospital authorities had committed a ‘crime’ by not immediately declaring the death of his son. He alleged that Rajveer underwent hypospadias surgery, which usually takes an hour, for more than four hours. And Rajveer was put on life support immediately after the surgery, he added.

“The doctors did not allow me and my wife to meet our son after surgery,” he said, adding that they did not receive any response even though they enquired about the condition of their son.

The affidavit also reads that the baby was not attended by senior doctors despite repeated requests. The OPD slip and bills related to the baby’s treatment were confiscated by the doctors after Rajveer was declared dead, Prajapat alleged.