Relatives allege negligence on part of hospital in Thane for man’s death

The relatives of a 48-year-old patient who died after a neurosurgery at Life Care Hospital in Thane refused to claim his body for over 24 hours alleging negligence on the part of the hospital for the death; they claimed that the surgery was not conducted by an experienced doctor as per the assurance given by the hospital but another doctor performed it; the hospital has denied the allegations and has approached the police to take the body

The relatives of a 48-year-old patient who died after a neurosurgery at Life Care Hospital in Thane refused to claim his body for over 24 hours alleging negligence on the part of the hospital

The relatives of the deceased 48-year-old man in Thane. They alleged negligence on the part of a hospital in Thane for the man’s death and refused to claim the body. (PRAFUL GANGURDE/HT PHOTO)

They claimed that the surgery was not conducted by an experienced doctor as per the assurance given by the hospital but another doctor performed it. The hospital has denied the allegations and has approached the police to take the body.

While no case was registered yet against either the hospital or the relatives, the police have given protection to the hospital in case of any disruptions by the relatives.

The patient, identified as Narsaiya Gangadhar of Lokmanya Nagar, was a driver by profession and died on Tuesday morning. The deceased stayed with his wife and two children, studying in Class 10 and 12. He was the sole breadwinner of his family.

His niece, Ravali Gangadhar, 27, told Hindustan Times, “My uncle was very particular about his diet. Even if he was on his duty, he used to make sure to eat on time, exercise and perform yoga and earn enough to educate his children. On the night of July 16, his blood pressure increased and he was taken to the nearby hospital. They recommended him to Life Care Hospital. There, his CT scan and MRI were done. The doctor told us that there was a small swelling in his brain, which is curable with medicines. Two days later, we were asked to come to the hospital saying it was an emergency.”

The family claimed that the hospital authorities informed them that they needed to carry out an emergency surgery on the brain and a senior, reputed doctor (name withheld) with 18 years of experience would operate on him.

Gangadhar said, “The operation was conducted for five hours. The doctor who carried out the operation informed us that he would need 48 hours to be normal. However, his health deteriorated the next day. We were told that his brain was working only 10%. When we met the doctor who performed the operation formally, we realised that the name of the doctor we signed on was different.”

The family claimed that the expert doctor later met them and assured he too was there in the Operation Theatre but they claimed that they never saw him.

Gangadhar added, “When we asked the dean, Dr Sushil Indoria, of Life Care Hospital to show us the CCTV, he backtracked saying that doctor’s name does not matter and the operation was a success. They themselves were not sure which doctor operated upon him. It is complete negligence.”

The family refused to take the body for over 24 hours.

Indoria refuted the claims saying, “His cause of death is brain dead due to cerebral brain stem compression. We told them that the expert doctor will perform the surgery. However, since it was an emergency surgery, he was not available and the other doctor was an equally-competent neurosurgeon. The family is not ready to claim the body, so we are requesting police to take the body in their custody for further post-mortem and demand police protection for the same.”

S Nikam, Vartak Nagar senior police inspector, said, “Both the parties came to us and narrated their sides of the story. The family claimed they were frustrated because senior authorities of the hospital were ignoring them and their calls for two or three days. We have provided protection to the hospital so that in case of any untoward incident, the other patients of the hospital should not suffer. We are requesting them to solve the problem amicably.”