Yet another incident of alleged medical negligence in treatment of a patient was reported in the city on Friday. Gayatri Devi, a 49 year-old resident of Tiljala area, died on Friday in a nursing home on Broad Street in the Koreya police station area. Aggrieved family members of the deceased have lodged a complaint against the nursing home and doctor who treated the patient with the police station this afternoon alleging negligence in her treatment.
They would also lodge another complaint with the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) on Monday seeking action against the nursing home and the concerned doctor.
“The patient was perfectly fine till Friday night and the doctor who performed a metal plate transplant operation on her right shoulder on Wednesday verbally informed us that she would be discharged on Saturday.
This morning when we were preparing to go to the nursing home to get the patient discharged we got a phone call from there saying that the patient’s condition was critical. We reached the nursing home immediately and found her lying dead,” said Manish Shaw, a relative of the deceased.
“It was so unexpected that we could not believe it first. How can it happen when she was supposed to be discharged on Friday? She sustained severe injury on her right shoulder with dislocation of some bones after she slipped and fell in the bathroom at her residence. She was brought to the nursing home on Tuesday and the doctor advised her for metal plate transplant surgery in her affected shoulder. She underwent the surgery on Wednesday and she was doing well since then,” Mr Shaw said.
“She was a diabetic patient with blood sugar level under control through regular medical medication. She had no cardiac ailments before and after the surgery. Surprisingly, the doctor who fled the nursing home soon after her death informed us later in the day on Friday it was a case of sudden cardiac death. But we cannot accept the explanation, and we think sheer negligence in treatment caused her death,” he said.
“We had briefed everything about the patient’s past medical history mainly the high blood sugar before the surgery. But the concerned doctor did not even consult with any endocrinologist before performing the operation,” one relative alleged.