Kolkata: In a case of gross medical negligence, a private nursing home in Burdwan has been accused of engaging an AC machine operator as a doctor to look after a Madhyamik examinee patient while being transported to a city hospital in an ambulance.
State Health department has ordered a probe in this regard. According to a senior district health official, a committee has been formed to investigate the role of the private nursing home. The ambulance operators in the district are also under scanner. The accused has been arrested.
The patient was declared brought dead after being shifted to a private hospital in the city. The doctors said the oxygen mask was not properly placed on the patient and this might have caused his death.
According to preliminary investigation, doctors suspect that the incident took place as it was not possible for an Air-conditioning machine operator to put an oxygen mask on the patient.
The victim has been identified as Arijit Das (14) who was a Madhyamik candidate this year. A resident of Birbhum, Das was taken to Annapurna Nursing Home in Burdwan on Thursday after he complained of serious ailments. His condition deteriorated as a result of which his family members decided to shift him to a city hospital.
Victim's family members claimed that they asked the private nursing home authorities to provide them with an ambulance. The nursing home authorities had allegedly provided a trauma care ambulance to shift the patient. One Seikh Sarfarajuddin was accompanying the patient as a physician in the ambulance. The patient complained of severe respiratory distress while being shifted to the city's hospital.
Victim's family members alleged that Seikh Sarfarajuddin appeared nervous when they asked him to attend the patient. The accused later put an oxygen mask on the patient.
When the victim was finally shifted to the hospital in Kolkata, the doctors informed the family members that the patient had died in the ambulance and the oxygen mask was not properly fitted. This aroused the suspicion of the doctors and inquired the accused prompting him to admit that he was a mere AC mechanic. The matter was immediately informed to the Jadavpur police station and the accused was arrested.
Annapurna Nursing Home authorities has, however, denied the allegation and said they did not provide the ambulance to the patient's family members. It was a private agency they had rented the ambulance from, claimed the hospital authorities.