Family alleges negligence, says hospital staff didn't check premises thoroughly before locking doors
Seventy-two-year-old Dattatray Kamble's family is in shock after their 12-hour long search for him ended in KEM hospital's loo where he was found dead on Wednesday morning.
The Kolhapur resident was accompanying his wife for her kidney treatment on Tuesday. While his wife Sunanda stood in the queue to get medicines from the hospital's medical store, Dattatray went to answer nature's call and didn't return. Although the post-mortem says he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the family has alleged negligence as he was found locked in the loo.
His son Sunil said, "My mother's creatinine level had shot up, indicating she had a kidney problem. On Tuesday, she and dad had come to pick up her reports and consult the doctor. They came to the hospital at 9.30am and got done only at 3.30pm. They stood in the queue to buy her medicines when dad said he needed to go to the loo."
He added that his mother waited for his return till 6.30pm. "My wife called her up to check on them. We tried reaching dad on his mobile phone but couldn't. We then asked her to return home and started our search for him," said Sunil, who stays in Currey Road with his brothers.
The brothers and their neighbours checked all urinals in and around KEM hospital. They then approached the hospital's security guard. "We asked him to help us take a look at the CCTV footage, but we found out that the CCTV in the hospital were not working. We then got in touch with the Bhoiwada police station. Till 3.30am, we kept looking for him in and around the hospital. We did visit the first floor of the new OPD building, but because it was locked, we could not check. I wish we had an inkling about him being locked inside," said Sandeep, his younger son.
It was only in the morning around 8.30 when the hospital called them. "I was at Bhoiwada police station, while my brothers were continuing the search in the hospital, when I received the call. He had been a healthy person, to find him gone has come as a big shock," said Sunil.
The Kamble brothers have accused the hospital staff of negligence, for not checking the premises before locking up. "He must have fallen unconscious; had the staff had checked the loo before locking the doors, he could have been saved. How can one lock doors before checking the premises thoroughly?" questioned Sunil.
He also alleged that the hospital is trying to cover up its negligence and had initially refused to conduct a post-mortem or give a death certificate.
Hospital authorities have initiated a departmental inquiry. "The post-mortem indicated that he died of brain haemorrhage. It was a sudden and natural death. His body was found in the loo and the door of the loo was locked from inside, suggesting that the attack was so sudden and intense that he couldn't even get up," said Dr Harish Pathak, head of the forensic department at the hospital.
He added that the provisional cause of death is brain haemorrhage and that they have sent samples of his organs for histopathalogy. "An internal inquiry has been initiated by the administration to find out the shortcomings."
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 "Dattatray Kamble")
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