After death of 6-year-old girl: 2 guards injured, doctors attacked in Nagpur hospital

The hospital lodged a complaint at Tehsil police station on Monday naming four accused in the case, including parents of the deceased girl.

TWO security guards were allegedly stabbed and several doctors attacked on Monday at the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College (IGGMC), Nagpur, following the death of a six-year-old girl admitted in the hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit. The hospital lodged a complaint at Tehsil police station on Monday naming four accused in the case, including parents of the deceased girl.

According to resident doctors, the girl was admitted last Friday with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disease in which the immune system attacks nerves leading to paralysis. A dose of intravenous immunoglobulin was given on Saturday. “The family was facing financial issues and could not afford the cost. They could only get it by Saturday,” said a resident doctor.

The girl suffered progressive paralysis with autonomic imbalance. On Monday, she suffered respiratory problems and a subsequent cardiac arrest. Following her demise, her relatives gathered in the intensive care unit and allegedly started breaking furniture.

“The mob first broke a ventilator in the PICU. They had knives and attacked doctors and hospital staffers,” said Dr Abhinav Chaudhary, member of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD). He added that the patient’s father shattered the glass of the ward door. The mother picked up the glass pieces and attacked the staff.
Two security guards, Prabhudas Rathod and Sudhakar Sapade, who tried to intervene, were injured and had to be hospitalised. “Both of them are stable. One sustained stab wound on forehead and other on eye,” said Dr Sagar Pandey, assistant medical superintendent at IGGMC.

Doctors added that security and hospital administration acted swiftly as soon as the mob got enraged.
“They destroyed some furniture. But as soon as alarm was raised, security rushed inside,” Pandey added.