The first-floor balcony of Medical College and Hospital from where Imtiyaz fell. Picture by Amit Datta

A 17-year-old patient died at Medical College and Hospital after falling from the first floor balcony of the male medicine ward on Thursday morning.

Relatives of Mohammad Imtiyaz, an Asansol resident, alleged that he was pushed by a few nurses “who wanted to get the bed vacated”.

But police and the hospital authorities denied the charge, saying Imtiyaz might have committed suicide.

Imtiyaz, who had been bleeding from the nose, was diagnosed with a blood disorder two months ago. He was admitted in the haematology department on April 15 but since no beds were available there, the authorities allotted him one in the medicine ward.

The patient’s relatives alleged that a junior doctor asked them last Saturday to take Imtiyaz away. But since his condition was not improving, the family pleaded with the authorities to let him stay in the hospital.

“Our plea was granted but the doctors and nurses behaved badly with us. They constantly accused Imtiyaz of unnecessarily occupying a bed,” said sister Yasmin Hassan.

On Thursday morning, some nurses in the ward allegedly abused them again and asked them to leave with the patient. “A nurse held my hand and dragged me out of the ward,” said Rosy Begum, another sister of Imtiyaz, who would stay by his bed and look after him from 8am to 6pm. “They said that being a girl, I could not stay in a male ward. I told them I had the permission from the authorities but they still turned me out,” added Rosy.

Once out of the ward, Rosy ran downstairs to Yasmin and other family members. Within 15 minutes, around 11am, Imtiyaz fell from the balcony.

The family immediately took the teen to the emergency ward but the doctors there allegedly refused to treat him. “The doctors said since Imtiyaz was admitted to the medicine ward, he had to be taken there for treatment,” said Yasmin.

Imtiyaz was then taken to the medicine ward where, the relatives alleged, he was left untreated for half an hour. “He was still alive, bleeding profusely from the head and nose. But the delay in treatment killed him,” alleged uncle Mohammed Rashid.

“Some nurses pushed him from the first-floor balcony to get the bed vacated. We will lodge a police complaint,” said Yasmin.

“It seems to be a case of suicide but we can be sure only after the post-mortem report comes in,” said Dwijen Chatterjee, the officer-in-charge of Bowbazar police station.

“It seems he was suffering from some mental agony due to the disease and so committed suicide,” said A.N. Biswas, the deputy medical superintendent of the hospital.