Mumbai
Eyewitness claims staff didn’t forewarn victim; hospital says kin insisted on o2 cylinder
Updated : Jan 29, 2018, 05:45 AM IST
Eyewitnesses to the freak accident at Nair Hospital on Saturday evening blame the carelessness of the hospital’s on duty staff for the mishap that claimed 30-year-old Rajesh Maru’s life. “It is mere carelessness of the on-duty doctors and technicians of the MRI section as they did not caution Maru about entering the MRI room with the oxygen cylinder,” said Nayan Jitiya, Maru’s relative.
Maru was accompanying his elder sister’s ailing mother-in-law, Laxmi Solanki, who was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital on January 26 for breathlessness. She was on oxygen support and was advised to get an MRI done. On Saturday, around 7.30 pm when Solanki was being taken for the MRI on a stretcher, Maru was holding an oxygen cylinder in his hand. They were accompanied by two other relatives. Maru’s body was later taken to JJ Hospital for a post-mortem.
Priyanka Solanki, who was with Maru at the time of the incident said, “We were told by the aaya (helper) to remove our ornaments. The ward boy said that the MRI machine is switched off so Maru could enter first to keep the oxygen cylinder and then help them take the patient into the room. The door was only half-way open when he was instantly swept into the MRI machine due to its magnetic force. Within seconds he was stuck inside the machine and oxygen from the cylinder began leaking.”
Solanki added, “The doctors immediately took him to the casualty room but he was declared dead within 10 minutes of examination.”
Following the incident, the family approached the Agripada police station and lodged an FIR against the hospital. “Around 8 to 8.15 pm the relatives came in to file an FIR. We have arrested three accused — the on duty resident doctor, Dr Saurabh Langekar, a ward boy and the helper. Another doctor from the radiology department, Dr Siddhart Shah was present in the MRI room, however, no case has been registered against him by the family,” said Savalaram Agawane, Senior Police Inspector, Agripada police station.
Agawane added, “We will carry out a detailed investigation into why the authority on duty allowed the victim to enter the MRI room with an oxygen cylinder. Even if the relatives were unaware or stubborn, it is the hospital’s responsibility to stop them.”
MRI
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
1
MRI machine per hospital
Rs 5 crore+
Cost per machine
30
MRIs per day at Nair Hospital
MRI room
a separate room inside the radiology section of a hospital
Why?