Police from the Shivaji Nagar police station conducted raids at various clinics on Thursday, after a two-year-old boy in the Shivaji Nagar area of Mumbai died due to negligence in administering medicine.

Azim Shaikh, the boy’s father complained that his two-year-old son Taha Azim Khan was vomiting and had diarrhoea and so was admitted to Noor hospital on January 11. Next to his bed was a 16-year-old suffering from fever. Two nurses Nargis and Saleemunnisa argued over who would give an injection to Taha on January 13 before he was to be discharged. The angry nurse Nargis gave the injection to Taha and he died within half an hour. He further told, that his son had recovered, but the hospital authorities kept delaying his discharge, saying they wanted to give him some antibiotics.

An officer from the Shivaji Nagar police station said that Taha was given Azithromycin 500 mg meant for the 16-year boy, instead of his medication, which was too strong for Taha, and the injection caused the boy’s death.

Senior inspector Arjun Rajane said that an FIR was registered against the nurses, the hospital Resident Medical Officer and a management official. The nurse was not qualified and pursuing HSc and worked as a sweeper at the hospital. A receptionist of the Noor hospital said that she was unaware of the incident as she had recently joined. The mobile number of Dr Sayed Nizam, one of the hospital directors, was switched off, while other directors Huzaifa Ahmed and Sayed Maaz, said they were medical students and unaware of the incident.

On Thursday, officers from the Shivaji Nagar police station conducted raids at various clinics under their jurisdiction to find out if medical personnel were serving without a licence. An officer said that they have found people practising as doctors with degrees not recognised by the Maharashtra Medical Council. Many such clinics continued to run because such people charged less than a properly qualified doctor. Many times some doctors hire local help majority of whom are not qualified and in absence of the doctors, these help offer medication, leading to such incidents.

In another incident, a 10-year-old Tahir Khan died on Sunday, after taking medication given by a dentist. On January 15 he was taken to a dentist by his mother, the boy developed rashes on his hand following which he was taken to Rajawadi hospital at Ghatkopar, where he died the next day. The police took it as an Accidental Death Report as the cause of death is not known yet.

Previously, based on panel reports the Shivaji Nagar police arrested a nurse on December 29 for allegedly giving a wrong injection to a woman in October 2021, leading to her death.

Source: The Indian Express