‘Docs too late in saving boy wrongly declared dead’

In a bizarre incident, authorities at the VN Desai Hospital in Santa Cruz on Wednesday night realised that a teenager, whom they had declared dead an hour back, was actually ‘alive’. By that time, though, it was too late to save the youth.

Rakesh Pandey, 17, a resident of Vakola, was electrocuted while putting up a banner for the ongoing Ganeshotsav. Locals rushed him to the hospital. Dr Sandeep Padgaonkar, the officer on duty, declared him dead before admission, alleged Arshad Sheikh, Pandey’s neighbour.

“After an hour, we noticed that Pandey’s body gave a sudden jerk,” said Sheikh. The boy’s relatives and friends rushed him to the hospital’s intensive care unit. “The doctor at the ICU told us that Pandey could have been saved had he been brought a bit earlier.”

Police records claimed that Pandey’s kin became agitated. One of them slapped Dr Padgaonkar. Senior police inspector Anil Kharade of the Vakola police station said the doctor then filed a complaint against the mob for trying to obstruct a government servant from performing his duty. The hospital staff, too, went on strike for few hours.

Dr SR Wadekar, medical superintendent at the hospital, insisted that Pandey’s body did not jerk. He said, “Dr Padgaonkar declared Pandey dead after conducting the required procedures. Nevertheless, Pandey’s relatives insisted on taking him to the ICU, where doctors affirmed that the boy was dead.”

The police added that this is the third case in which Dr Padgaonkar has been alleged of medical negligence. They said that this was too much of a co-incidence and have decided to send a report to the medical department regarding the previous cases in which his named had cropped up.