The Mumbai police have arrested one person and have booked four others in Mumbai for allegedly abusing and manhandling a KEM hospital female resident doctor due to the death of an 18-year-old patient because of cardiac arrest.

The arreste done is the brother of the deceased person named Jatin Parmar. All the accused men are relatives of Parmar and claimed that he was alive and they forced the doctors to restart the ventilator. The accused men further manhandled the on-duty female resident doctor.

On 12th September, the resident doctors of KEM Hospital took a silent march to Bhoiwada police station and demanded that a FIR should be registered against the family members of Parmar. A FIR was registered against the accused men under several IPC sections accompanied by Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons & Medicare Service Institutions Act.

KEM hospital authorities said that Parmar already had a fever and was initially admitted to a private nursing home for 3 days. He had three episodes of fits and was transferred to KEM hospital at 9.05 pm on 7th September as he required a ventilator. The official said that the patient during the time of admission, was suffering from breathlessness and fits.

Dean of KEM hospital Dr Hemant Deshmukh said that after the patient’s admission at KEM hospital, Parmar was immediately put on a ventilator because his saturation was 80 per cent on 15 litres per minute oxygen. Also, his clinical condition was explained to his family members. He was also treated with antibiotics, anti-fit medications, blood pressure maintenance medications and IV fluids. In spite of all the efforts, the patients condition kept deteriorating and this was communicated regularly to his relatives.

Deshmukh said that on 9th September, Parmar died of a cardiac arrest at 1:20 AM. He was declared dead in front of his brother and maternal uncle after showing them a flat ECG line, indicating death. Police said that Parmars relatives angrily entered the ICU after some time and said that he was declared dead without even informing them and tore the ECG. They abused the on duty female resident doctor and manhandled other hospital staffers. Senior Inspector Vinod Kamble of Bhoiwada police station said that the relatives claimed that Parmar was still alive and they forced the hospital authorities to restart the ventilator again.Deshmukh said that any ventilator, when switched on even if it is not attached to a patient will show certain graphs during breath delivery and thus it was misinterpreted as a spontaneous breathing activity by the relatives of the patient. On their persistence, a senior physician who was on call was called and the ventilator was disconnected after the intervention of the police.

Source: The Logical Indian