The hospital currently has 26 ventilators in its emergency ward and another 37 in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Three patients died at Safdarjung hospital late night on Monday after they allegedly failed to receive ventilator support for their ongoing treatment. The three victims who fell prey to the hospital's administrative failure had been admitted in the casualty ward of the hospital.
The family of the 13-year-old girl Ritu Kumari, who died at Safdarjung Hospital on Monday night, has claimed that the condition of the girl was deteriorating day-by-day but the doctors were negligent about it. They also alleged that when her condition worsened on Monday, she was refused a ventilator by doctors, citing unavailability.
Incidentally, one of the doctors who had been overseeing Kumari's case, Manish Rawat, from the neurosurgical department, is the same doctor who was suspended last year for six months for his involvement in an accident that killed four people.
Denying the family's claims, the hospital said Kumari's death was not caused due to lack of ventilators or negligence on their part. "We have enough ventilators at the hospital, so this is not the reason for her death. She (Ritu Kumari) had a head injury which did not give us much time to treat her," said Dr Rajendra Kumar, Medical Superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital.
The hospital currently has 26 ventilators in its emergency ward and another 37 in the intensive care unit (ICU).
On Monday, an estimated 1,230 patients arrived at Safdarjung's Emergency ward, of which 10 deaths were reported, said a senior doctor on condition of anonymity.
The doctor also confirmed that along with Ritu Kumari, two other victims — a 21-year-old girl and a 50-year-old male — died on Monday night allegedly due to lack of ventilators. He did not give further details.
Kumari was first admitted to the hospital in early January when she was found to be suffering from typhoid. While she was first discharged later that month, she was again brought back with suspected meningeal tuberculosis, which had caused cerebral edema (a condition that causes fluid to develop in the brain). Admitted for almost a month, her condition declined every day, while her neuro-surgery kept getting delayed for various reasons.
"Her surgery was canceled four times in the last few days. Every other day doctors would ask us not to feed her food as she was due for surgery. After starving my daughter for 12-14 hours, they would cancel the surgery due to non-availability. When her condition further declined on March 4, we were made to run from one department to other, but nobody tended to her, as they cited that no ventilator was available," said Vinod Kumar, Ritu's father.
Kumar alleges that his daughter would not have needed a ventilator if her surgery had been conducted on time. He also shares that both the neurosurgeons looking at her case were insensitive and once even tore the written slip he had brought from the doctor at the emergency ward.
NO LIFE SUPPORT
- In another incident, a 45-year-old jaundice patient died on Monday night after he was allegedly denied a ventilator at government-run Lok Nayak Hospital in Delhi
- After being admitted for eight hours at the hospital, the condition of Mohammad Inam worsened and he died at midnight
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