A 82-year-old man died in South Delhi’s Saket Max hospital on Friday and his family members have alleged that he died due to negligence of his doctors. The hospital, however, refuted the allegations, saying that the patient was provided necessary treatment in line with the clinical guidelines and protocol. On the request of the victim’s family, his body has been sent for an autospsy, the hospital added.
About a week ago, Dharam Chand Mahnot was admitted to the hospital after he complained of uneasiness in his chest. His niece, Mansi Jain, said initial reports showed that his electrocardiogram (ECG) was abnormally high, but doctors did not pay heed to it and said he had mild pneumonia.
“My uncle could have survived and would have been living with us today had the doctor given him the correct treatment. We have the reports of various treatments given him to him, but there is no report of any treatment for his cardiac problem,” Ms Jain told this newspaper.
As per hospital records, Mahnot reportedly died due cardiac failure on Friday night. When Ms Jain along with her family confronted Dr Ashish Jain, who was looking after the patient, he allegedly abused them and also threw medical reports at them.
“The doctor was so abusive and after repeated protests, he threw the medical reports at me and asked us to get out of the hospital premises. My uncle died due to gross negligence and people should know the amount of corruption that is taking place in hospitals,” Ms Jain alleged.
The family then complained to the police, which told them that an FIR can only be registered after an autopsy report is produced.
On their part, the hospital authorities said, the deceased was brought to Max on May 12. “He had a history of a fall and UTI infection (E.Coli). After the admission to the hospital, it was found that he was also suffering from pneumonia with septic shock, Parkinson’s disease and also had a spinal fracture at the L3 level,” a statement issued by the hospital said.
Mahnot was then admitted to the ICU for medical management of his condition.
He was provided with the necessary treatment in line with the clinical guidelines and protocols. Within 2-3 days of treatment, he started showing improvement and was moved out of the ICU on May 14, the hospital statement said.
