Girl dies waiting for treatment

Even as doctors at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital called off their strike on Saturday evening, a four-year-old girl died outside the emergency ward in want of treatment. HT reports.

Even as doctors at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital called off their strike on Saturday evening, a four-year-old girl died outside the emergency ward in want of treatment.

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The girl was suffering from meningial encephalitis.

Around 250 doctors at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital went on strike on Friday night after angry relatives of a patient assaulted one of their colleagues.

Hospital sources said the girl was brought in an unconscious state early in the morning. With no senior doctor present at the emergency ward and resident doctors on strike, there was no one to attend to her.

The girl needed ventilator support. However, Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) of the hospital said doctors did attend to the girl. "Our doctors attended to her and provided necessary care. She was put on antibiotics, but her condition was extremely critical when she was brought to the hospital," said Dr Ravinder Singh, an RDA member.

There is also severe shortage of beds in the hospital. Maharaj Anand, 70, on Thursday succumbed to septicaemia after hospital authorities failed to allot him an ICU bed. "He was advised ICU care, but there were no beds available," said a neighbour of the deceased. The doctors also claimed they were overworked. "A lot of doctors are on Games duty, and 80 per cent of our 2,000 daily OPD visits are suspected cases of dengue and viral fever," said Dr Singh.