Woman’s death sparks row at SSGH

Vadodara: Relatives of a 50-year-old woman created ruckus at the state-run SSG Hospital on Friday alleging that the resident of Ajwa Road died due to negligence of medical staff on duty.

The hospital, however, refuted the allegations and termed it as a death due to the patient's medical condition.

Geeta Kahar, a resident of Kishanwadi area of Ajwa Road's Tulsi chowk area, was admitted in the female medical ward before two days after she complained of vomiting, diarrhoea and acute stomach pain. "Despite our repeated inquiries, the staff on duty kept administering bottles of saline solution to my mother and did not even inform us on her actual medical condition," said deceased's elder son Subhash Kahar.

"My mother was even talking to us till Friday morning but suddenly the doctors said us that she was critical and had slipped in comma," said younger son Raghunath Kahar, alleging that even as the family had asked a nurse on duty to replace a drip in which blood had clotted, the nurse used the same drip to administer saline bottle. "Even after we sought several explanations after my mother's death, the nurse on duty did not turn up and neither have we received any satisfactory answer," said Raghunath.

After the relatives created ruckus, a PCR van rushed to the spot to bring things under control. "The patient's kidney was damaged and her blood pressure was also low because of dehydration. Although, her health was improving till morning, she first started feeling drowsy and suddenly collapsed after which we had to shift her from middle cot to side cot. We intubated the patient and started providing oxygen through ambu bag. When we took the first ECG to measure the heart's electrical activity, only one lead was missing. When we took the second ECG, we were not getting the leads and we declared the patient dead," said a doctor.

Sources suggest that the patient's family on Thursday had refused to get some tests done from outside the hospital claiming that they are supporters of a Shiv Sena leader even as the staff insisted that the tests would be necessary to know the medical condition of the patient.

The dead body has been kept in the cold storage for post-mortem examination. "Based on the post-mortem report, we will file complaint with the police," said Raghunath.

Sources suggest that the medical intensive care unit at SSG Hospital has 23 beds which is not enough to accommodate the rush of patients that the hospital witnesses.