Two-year-old dies after sweeper administers wrong injection

A two-year-old boy died at an unregistered hospital in Govandi in eastern Mumbai on Wednesday, after a sweeper allegedly administered him an injection meant for another patient

Mumbai A two-year-old boy died at an unregistered hospital in Govandi in eastern Mumbai on Wednesday, after a sweeper allegedly administered him an injection meant for another patient.

Police inspector Iqbal Shigalgaar said that the incident occurred at Noor Hospital on Wednesday evening (HT File)

The Shivajinagar police are trying to trace the 17-year-old sweeper, who allegedly sometimes helps the nurses out. Police sources said the sweeper was a class eighth dropout. Police have also booked Dr Altaf Khan (29), a BUMS, and the owner of the nursing home Nasimuddin Sayyed (63), on the charge of death by negligence.

Police inspector Iqbal Shigalgaar said that the incident occurred at Noor Hospital on Wednesday evening.

Shigalgaar said that they received information that the relatives of a patient were creating chaos, so, they reached the spot to find that two-year-old Taha Azeem Khan had died. Azeem, Taha’s father informed the police that three days ago, Taha had loose motions so he had been admitted to the hospital.

On Wednesday, his consulting doctor Pravin Gangane was about to discharge him when the sweeper and another nurse were arguing about an injection.

The sweeper then picked up a jab and administered it to Taha. The injection was, however, meant for the patient next to him. “Without the knowledge of the doctor or me, Taha was given the injection which proved to be fatal,” said Azeem.

“We have registered a case against the nurse, the doctor and the owner of the nursing home and are awaiting the postmortem report of the child to find out the exact cause of his death. We are making efforts to track the accused and arrest them,” said Arjun Rajane, senior police inspector of Shivajinagar police station.

Dr Harishchand Navneet, health officer of the M (east) ward said that there were 24 unregistered and 41 registered nursing homes in Shivajinagar area. He said that since 2009, there were no new registrations in the area, as the nursing homes do not meet the criteria laid down by BMC.

According to the police, recently another nurse was arrested from AK Khan’s National clinic for administering a wrong injection to 26-year-old Shabana Sayyed. The injection created an infection after which she had to be operated on and eventually passed away in October 2020.

The police arrested the nurse and are on a lookout for doctors Reham Khan and AK Khan.