Alleging gross medical negligence, the sexagenarian filed a police complaint demanding strict action as per law against the guilty.While a 59-year-old man has alleged he barely escaped death after he was left inside the MRI machine unattended during his check-up in the Civil Hospital, Panchkula, the authorities denied the allegation after conducting a preliminary investigation and looking through the CCTV footage.
The man, Ram Neher Singh Lohan, a resident of Sector 21, Panchkula, said he had gone to the Civil Hospital on Sunday and was put in the MRI machine at 1.56 pm. He was told to stay still as it would take approximately 10-15 minutes for the MRI to be done.
It was only after 30 minutes that Lohan, who had already been feeling uncomfortable, started to shout as he got breathless but realising his voice might not reach out, he started moving his hands and legs frantically to give the attending technician a hint. He could not move much as he was tied by the belt. It was only after he realised nobody is coming to help that he tried to break it.
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“When I thought I was about to die, I pushed hard and suddenly the belt broke and I got out,” Lohan said. He then took a five-minute rest before he spotted somebody and called him for help. “It was only after I started shouting that the attending technician, who was supposed to be there throughout, made an entry into the room.”
Lohan, who thought he would have died, then went to the Sector 5 police station to register a complaint. The police filed a DDR and told him they would file an FIR only after investigating the matter.
The hospital authorities formed a committee having senior doctors to look into the incident. The committee found that the patient was in the MRI machine for 34 minutes out of which for the first 32 minutes he was being observed. In the last two minutes, the radiologist excused himself to the bathroom while instructing the second radiologist to take care. While a second patient approached the radiologist, Lohan started to panic.
Yogesh Sharma, CMO, Civil Hospital, said, “The incident only happened in the last two minutes. The man is elderly and the machine can make anybody feel claustrophobic. There is also a button that can be pressed by anybody in the machine when he is uncomfortable but maybe the radiologist forgot to tell him or he himself did not remember. We have a minute-to-minute footage and this is what it shows.”
The hospital committee will call Lohan on Tuesday to record his statement.
