Behrampore, Feb. 6: A 74-year-old man admitted to the district hospital here with chest pain last Wednesday had to be shifted to the intensive care unit this morning after being administered medicine meant for another patient.

Nemai Guchhait?s son Dibakar said he has lodged a written complaint with the Murshidabad chief medical officer and demanded action against those responsible.

?I just cannot imagine how a trained nurse makes such a mistake. If my father dies, I will lodge a murder complaint with the police,? said Dibakar.

At the hospital, the medicines are put in separate white paper packets on which bed numbers are written.

Guchhait?s youngest son Tanmoy detected the mistake when he came to see his father this morning. ?I asked him if he had taken the medicine. He had. But I saw a tablet in the pouch meant for him. The packet for the patient on the next bed, Kamal Saha, was empty. The sister admitted to the mistake,? said Tanmoy.

In the male ward of the hospital, about 200 km from Calcutta, two patients share the same bedside table.

Sachchidananda Sarkar, the chief medical officer, said: ?I have asked the hospital superintendent to conduct an inquiry and submit a report. If the nurse is proved guilty, she will be punished.?

Dibakar said his father underwent bypass surgery last year. Last Wednesday, he complained of a breathing problem. ?We did not take chances and admitted him to the hospital immediately. This morning, he felt uneasy and complained of intense pain in the chest. Doctors put him on oxygen and shifted him to the ICU,? he added.

Saha, who was admitted with flatulence and pain in his distended stomach, said: ?I am really worried about Nemai Guchhait.?

Doctor charged

Shyamal Ranjan Sarkar, a doctor in Canning, South 24-Parganas, has been implicated in a criminal case after carrying out an abortion without the consent of the woman last June. But Sarkar today refused to accept the chargesheet sent to him by the subdivisional judicial magistrate.