Nashik death: Family blames NIV report

Crucial — and what could have been life-saving — hours were lost when a faxed report from NIV, Pune, mentioned the wrong name of a patient having tested positive for swine flu.

As a result, as alleged by the victim’s family, “no proper treatment” was administered to Rupesh Gangurde, an Ayurvedic doctor, making him the first victim of swine flu in Nashik on Tuesday night.

An employee at a health centre at Manmad, Dr Gangurde, 28, was admitted to Nashik civil hospital on Monday.

Dr Gangurde had travelled to Nashik on Friday for a meeting. On Monday, he was brought with X-ray reports of broncho pneumonia. He was admitted to the ICCU of the Nashik civil hospital with respiratory distress, but by evening got himself admitted to a private hospital and then back in the civil hospital. His swab test returned positive on Tuesday night and by wee hours of Wednesday Gangurde was dead.

Gangurde’s uncle Vinod Kharoteblamed that the fax report mentioned Rupesh Rathod instead of Rupesh Gangurde and so the hospital did not start proper treatment till they received the correct report.

Confirming the faux pass of the name on the report, Dr Shobha Bachchav said that the case, however, was confirmed to be positive on the telephone and there was no delay on part of the civil hospital authorities to administer treatment. “He was under treatment since Monday,” she said.