Three patients, including a two-and-a-half-year-old girl, died today in three private hospitals in the city, triggering protests from relatives. The three hospitals are AMRI, Woodlands and Apollo Gleneagles in the East Jadavpur, Alipore and Phoolbagan police stations areas, respectively.

Awitri De, a child of Kamalgazi in the southern part of the city, was rushed to AMRI Hospitals in Mukundapur along E M Bypass on 15 January. The girl was undergoing treatment at the hospitaltill yesterday. But, she died during the day soon after she was administered an injection by doctors and the nurse. The hospital management claimed that the child had been administered an injection after she started vomiting with respiratory distress today.

“Initially, the child was brought to the hospital’s OPD showing symptoms of high fever and respiratory trouble on 15 January and she was admitted to the hospital later in the day. There was no medical negligence and all kinds of proper treatment had been taken for the patient,” a spokesperson of the hospital claimed.

Mrs Joyonti Chatterjee, unit head of the hospital, reportedly told the relatives: “Don’t make any hooliganism here and for your information I am a big hooligan.” The relatives were then agitating against the child’s death. Later, Mrs Chatterjee apologised to the relatives who demanded her arrest if she did not . AMRI Hospitals sources said she was asked to go on leave and a committee has been set up to probe the allegations against her. Awitri’s mother Mrs Shampa De fainted repeatedly soon after she lost her only child. “It’s the sheer negligence of the doctors who snatched my child from my lap forever. The doctors could not give any proper medical attention to my daughter who was so playful till last night. There was no arrangement for oxygen supply even when her condition deteriorated . Finally, oxygen was given but it was too late,” she said.

According to a police officer the relatives left with the body after the police assured them their complaint would be looked into. In Apollo Gleneagles, Alok Das, 55 year-old employee of Science College at Rajabazar, died at the hospital allegedly without getting any medical attention for over an hour. The family members lodged a complaint with the Phoolbagan police station. “My father was rushed to Apollo hospital with chest and lung ailments today. No doctor attended to him for over an hour. The hospital denied his admission showing reasons of non-availability of beds. He requested the hospital authorities for immediate treatment. We saw him dying in front of all of us,” his son Rohit alleged.

“Our hospital was experiencing heavy rush of emergency patients since Tuesday. We communicated this to the relatives of the patient saying no beds were available for admission. However, our doctors attended the patients at the earliest possible time. He was declared dead due to sudden cardiac arrest,” a spokesperson of Apollo Gleneagles said.

In the third incident, Gautam Pal, an employee of Sector V, was brought to Woodlands from Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, after he sustained an injury on his right leg and left hand following a road accident on Monday.

“My son spoke to us last evening. He was scheduled to undergo an operation today. Surprisingly, the hospital informed us that my son’s condition had deteriorated and he died last night’’, his father said.