Srinagar: A two-year-old boy died because of neglect by doctors at SKIMS who “refused to listen to the advice by the hospital’s Medical Superintendent”, parents of the child, “who had began to smile after remaining motionless for a month”, said on Monday.
On night intervening Saturday and Sunday, the SK Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS), Valley’s only tertiary care hospital, witnessed chaos inside its Paediatric Intensive Care Unit over the ‘negligent’ act by a group of doctors who were on duty.
“My son, Eliya Asgar, was under observation following a tracheostomy surgery. He was suffering from a life threatening disease, Guillain-Barre-Symdrome,” Mohammad Ibrahim Malik, the boy’s father, told INS.
He said that his son was recovering from month-long paralysis. “Several days ago, doctors conducted a surgery and placed a 4mm ‘trach tube’ in the windpipe, so that he can breathe easily. Everything was fine and Eliya had begun to smile and move his left arm after remaining in paralysis for over a month.”
Despite the speedy recovery, he said, some ‘junior doctors’ were adamant to replace 4mm ‘trach tube’ with a 5mm tube.
“I and my wife spoke to Medical Superintendent regarding the suggestion made by junior doctors and he told everyone that the change was not required. Despite this, one of the junior doctors did not listen to us and without our consent, went on to change the tube,” Malik said.
At around 10p.m, he said, the doctor told his wife that he was going to insert the new tube. “My wife insisted not to do so because medical superintendent had already said it was not required but he (doctor) without our consent went ahead. The moment he took out the tube, Eliya died within few minutes due to suffocation,” he said.
Malik went to a local police station in Soura to register a complaint against the doctor. “The moment police party visited the hospital everyone was stunned to see that doctors had placed the dead body on a ventilator to pretend that my son was still alive. Due to the continuous supply of oxygen, the body swelled and it looked as if it was that of a 10-year-old child,” he said.
A medical document of the child, a copy of which is also available with INS, reads he died at 10:30p.m. Surprisingly an E.C.G report shows that he was placed on a ventilator at 11 p.m. on the same day.
Mayaser Ali, a relative of the boy alleged that hospital administration was trying to shield its staff by not taking any action against them “despite knowing the truth.”
Ali said that the police cannot take any action against the doctors in light of the guidelines by the Supreme Court. “In this case, police requires the cooperation of the Medical Superintendent but it does not seem that justice will be delivered,” he said.
When contacted, Medical Superintendent SKIMS Syed Amin Tabish said that an inquiry has been ordered into the incident and refused to comment further. “An enquiry headed by four senior doctors is ongoing and they will come up with the findings. Till then I cannot comment regarding anything because I represent patients as well,” he said.
