18-yr-old dies after pvt hosp denies admission
Kolkata: An 18-year-old youth, Subhrajit Chatterjee, a resident of Ichhapur in North 24-Parganas has allegedly become a victim of medical negligence in which three hospitals from the district allegedly denied admission to the patient assuming that he might be a Covid victim.
The incident happened despite Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's repeated pleas to all the hospitals across the state not to deny admission to any serious patients during the present pandemic situation. Banerjee had given a clear instruction that all the hospitals have to provide initial treatment to the critical patients.
The patient who appeared for the HS examination this year, was taken to the ESI Hospital in Kamarhati with severe respiratory distress but he was denied admission in the wee hours of Friday. The victim's parents took him to Midland Hospital, a private nursing home in Belghoria where the patient was denied admission. Family members claimed that the patient was kept unattended for several hours and later the nursing home said that a rapid test confirmed that he had been affected with Covid. As admission was denied, the family members took the youth to the ESI Hospital at Kamarhati for the second time. He was again denied admission. ESI Kamarhati said that they could not treat Covid patients.
The family members then took him to the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital but they failed to secure an admission.
The patient was finally taken to the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) on Friday afternoon. The deceased's mother claimed that they were told that there was no bed in the hospital. She also claimed that her son was given admission after she threatened to commit suicide inside the hospital campus. The patient eventually died late Friday night.
In another incident, Pradip Pal (54), a resident of Belgachia and a cancer patient had been undergoing chemotherapy at a private cancer hospital in Rajarhat before being shifted to the supespecialty block of the CMCH on May 30 when he complained Covid symptoms. As his condition improved the patient was taken to the Green Building on July 6.
Family members of Pal claimed that the patient became free from the Covid infection and he also tested negative for the virus at the CMCH. The family members alleged that the patient could not be given cancer treatment which eventually led to his death.
The medical superintendent of the CMCH, Dr Indranil Biswas said that a thorough probe would be conducted to find out if there was any incident of negligence in the hospital.
