Maharashtra: Acting dean, doctor booked for culpable homicide over 31 hospital deaths
An FIR was lodged against acting dean SR Wakode and a paediatrician after a complaint lodged by an individual who lost his daughter
The acting dean and a doctor have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder following the death of 31 patients within days at a government hospital in Maharashtra’s Nanded district.
The Maharashtra police filed an FIR against acting dean SR Wakode and a paediatrician in the wake of a complaint lodged by an individual who lost his daughter and her newborn child at the facility, officials said on Thursday.
The deaths took place at the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital. The two were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (common intention).
As many as 31 people, including infants, died at the hospital between September 30 and October 2-3. According to the FIR, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, Anjali, was taken to the hospital on the night of September 30.
She delivered a girl at around 1 am on October 1. Doctors said the mother and the child were fine, Anjali’s father Kamaji Tompe said in the complaint.
Later in the morning, Anjali started bleeding and the baby also fell ill. Doctors asked the family members to get medicines, a blood bag and other required items from outside. When these were brought, doctors were not present in the ward, Tompe said.
The anguished further claimed that Wakode did not send a doctor or a staff nurse to check on Anjali. “The doctors declared Anjali’s baby dead and handed over the body to us at 6 am on October 2. Later, Anjali was declared dead at 10.30 am on October 4,” the complaint said.
Tompe alleged that the dean deliberately did not let doctors treat Anjali. The doctors asked the family members to get medicines worth Rs 45,000 from outside, he said. He alleged that many patients died in front of him due to the non-availability of doctors, nurses and medicines.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has said that his government had taken the deaths at the Nanded hospital very seriously, and appropriate action would be taken after a detailed inquiry.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognizance of the deaths at two state-run hospitals in Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar cities. It said the reasons given by doctors citing the shortage of beds, staff and essential medicines cannot be accepted.
(With agency inputs)