Swine flu kills senior doctor, kin demand compensation

The directorate of health services (DHS) has denied that a senior government hospital doctor had died of swine flu (H1N1) at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on March 3 even as the patient’s samples tested positive for the viral influenza.

The directorate of health services (DHS) has denied that a senior government hospital doctor had died of swine flu (H1N1) at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on March 3 even as the patient’s samples tested positive for the viral influenza.

The family of the deceased doctor, Dinesh Kumar Singh, has demanded compensation from the Delhi government for the expenses incurred by them for his treatment, which they claim was `20 lakh.

The Delhi unit of BJP has thrown its weight behind the doctor’s family with party president Satish Upadhyay demanding that the Delhi government compensate for all medical expenses incurred by Singh’s family along with an additional `1 crore as interim compensation.

According to a BJP spokesperson, Upadhyay will meet Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung on March 12 and take up this issue with him.

Dr Dinesh Kumar Singh, 34, a senior resident (anesthesia) at Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on February 8. He tested positive for H1N1 influenza at Dr Lal Path Labs, the report of which came on February 9.

The hospital’s admission case summary said that he was H1N1 positive and also had acute respiratory distress syndrome along with acute kidney injury. According to the hospital’s death certificate, the immediate cause of death was acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, acute kidney injury and shock, while the antecedent cause was bilateral pneumonia/viral (H1N1 +ve) and the underlying cause was diabetes mellitus.

“We took him to Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute at 4 am on February 8. Since there was no ICU at the hospital and the doctors suspected it to be a H1N1 case, we took him to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital (RML) around 8 am. He was kept in the ICU at RML till 8 pm after which we shifted him to Ganga Ram hospital,” said Dr Avinash Singh, deceased’s brother, who is a dentist.

According to hospital sources, Dr Singh was under treatment for H1N1 at the hospital for almost three weeks and was also diabetic and had co-morbid conditions.

But the Directorate of Health Services denied that Singh’s death was due to swine flu (H1N1), with the state health minister saying that they had not received a request for compensation.