The Agripada police have arrested the resident doctor and the ward boy on duty at the BYL Nair Hospital following the death of Rajesh Maru on Saturday evening after he was sucked into an MRI machine.
According to officials, Maru was visiting his sister’s mother-in-law, Laksmi Solanki, who had been admitted to the hospital on Friday and was scheduled to undergo an MRI scan.
“We were all helping move my mother from the ward to the MRI centre for her scan at 7.30 p.m.,” said Tribhuvan Solanki, Ms. Laksmi’s son, who was present in the hospital with his sister Priyanka and father Harish Solanki.
The Solankis said the doctor on duty, Siddhant Shah, asked them to go into the scan room, saying he would join them in ten minutes.
Officials at Nair hospital however, said the doctor was completing the requisite paperwork before the MRI scan, which is standard practice, and that family members of patients are not allowed into the MRI room.
“The ward boy told us we could carry the oxygen cylinder, which was provided for my mother to help her breathe, inside the room because she would need it. We asked the ward boy how could we carry the metal cylinder inside, and he said it was safe since the MRI machine was switched off,” said Mr. Solanki said.
However, as Rajesh Maru, the first to enter, walked in with the oxygen cylinder, he was sucked into the machine, which had been switched on.
“As soon as we opened the door, he was sucked into the machine along with the oxygen cylinder. His left hand got wedged between the oxygen cylinder and the MRI machine. The impact also triggered a leak in the cylinder. It all happened in a matter of seconds. We tried to pull him out. But it was too late,” said Ms. Priyanka.
Maru was pulled out of the machine and rushed to the emergency ward where he died ten minutes later. His body was subsequently taken to the JJ Hospital in Byculla for post-mortem.
“When we received the body, it was extremely swollen due to the excessive supply of the oxygen,” said a doctor from the JJ Hospital, who did not wished to be named.
Protesting the hospital’s apathy and lack of help following the incident, members of Maru’s family occupied the office of the Dean Dr. Ramesh Bharmal in Nair Hospital on Sunday morning and refused to leave until action was taken against the doctor and the hospital staff. They also refused to claim Maru's body from JJ Hospital unless action was taken. They were joined by members of the Meghwal community and Mangal Prabhat Lodha, MLA frrom Malabar Hill.
Mumbai Police spokesperson DCP Deepak Deoraj said Dr. Shah and Mr. Chavan were arrested on Sunday evening and charged with causing death due to negligence.
