Mumbai: The death of one of the employees of state-run St George’s Hospital and subsequent allegation of medical negligence by the family of the deceased employee has led to probe being ordered by medical education minister Hassan Mushrif. The controversy has erupted after the family member of deceased alleged that the deceased employee was left unattended for 3 hours. The deceased’s family has alleged medical negligence against two senior residents and one Chief Medical Officer of St George’s Hospital.
Dr Vinayak Sawardekar, medical superintendent of the hospital said “There are three heads of department from J J hospital who will be heading it [committee]. This will include Dr Ajay Bhandarwar from the surgery department, Dr Vidya Nagar from the medicine department and Dr Bhalachandra Chiklakar from the forensic science department.” The committee has been appointed to investigate any possible lapses between 5.54 pm and 8.50 pm on Wednesday, the time the patient arrived at the hospital to the point he was pronounced dead.
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There are two versions of the story that this committee will investigate. One is that of the relatives, who allege their kin died due to shortage of senior doctors and was attended by juniors till the very end. “My son was left unattended by senior doctors for two to three hours,” said Kailash Chauhan, father of 32-year-old Anish Chauhan. He was taken to the hospital after suffering grievous head injuries and died just as he was about to be treated after suffering a seizure. Another version that the committee will look into is that of the hospital’s, which is firm on its stand that two senior resident doctors were present till the end.
The big question raised by the family was: why was the medical officer absent at the time of the ordeal? “The CMO was in a post-mortem when the patient had arrived,” said Dr Ganesh Bhandare, resident medical officer. When asked if the outcome would have been different if CMO was present while the patient was being attended to, he said, “It is difficult to answer but we are certain that the process was followed,” added Dr Bhandare. He was not clear if the CMO was present any time between the time the patient arrived at the hospital to the time he passed away. However, Dr Sawardekar said, “The CMO was not there for 15 minutes but she was present by 6.15 pm.”