Power cut claims life at Bhagwati hospital

A 25-year-old man died at Bhagwati Hospital in Borivli during a power failure on Wednesday.

The civic-run hospital had a sudden power failure for three hours and it did not have a back-up.

Tribhuvan Goswami (25) was rushed to the emergency ward of the hospital on Wednesday around 3.45am after he started experiencing high fever, chills and severe bouts of breathlessness. He had been ill for the past week but his condition worsened on Wednesday.

He worked as an office boy at a factory in Surat and was visiting his Malad-based family during Ganpati.

“As soon as Tribhuvan was wheeled into the emergency ward, there was a power failure. The doctor refused to treat the patient in dark and asked us to wait till the power was restored,” said Subhash Giri, Tribhuvan’s uncle.

The relatives were appalled at the poor infrastructure of the 373-bed hospital. Let alone a electricity generator back-up, the hospital did not have even have a battery-run torch to deal with emergencies in case of a sudden power failure. “We asked the doctor to start with Tribhuvan’s basic treatment using mobile torch. She reluctantly administered medicines and put on an oxygen mask but later declared that as the patient was in need of ventilator, he had to be shifted elsewhere. Bhagwati Hospital does not have a ICU,” added Giri.

Even as the relatives and doctors were making arrangements for an ambulance, Tribhuvan lay practically unattended in darkness for more than 30 minutes.
And before he could be shifted, he died around 4.40am. One of the largest civic-run hospital in the western suburbs lacks a medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but even worse, in spite of an eight-bedded trauma care unit replete with ventilators existing in the hospital, Tribhuvan could not be put on one, as there was no electricity.
The civic body has ordered for an internal inquiry into Tribhuvan’s death. “There was power failure between 4.10am and 4.40am, during which the victim who was admitted to the emergency ward died. A detailed inquiry will reveal the exact circumstances in which he died. I cannot comment on the probable need of having wanted to shift him to the ICU as that depends on the discretion of the medical officer,” said Dr S Gawde, medical superintendent, Bhagwati Hospital.
“Even though there was no electricity, questions regarding a generator back-up and modality of patient treatment will be probed into,” said Dr Seema Malik, director of BMC-run peripheral hospitals.
maitri.porecha@dnaindia.com