The father of an 18-month-old girl who died at Dr BC Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences on Saturday lodged a complaint of medical negligence and misbehaviour against some doctors and nurses of the government-run hospital with Phoolbagan police station.
The girl, Satiksha Saha, who was from Ultadanga’s Bagmari Road, was admitted to the hospital on May 29 with convulsions.
“She had food and then developed a convulsion. She also had breathing difficulty. When we reached the hospital, she was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and put on ventilation support,” said Kaushik Saha, the girl’s father.
Kaushik said her daughter was taken off the ventilation support after five days and kept in the paediatric intensive care unit for two days without the ventilation support. “She was then shifted to the high-dependency unit (HDU),” said Kaushik.
He said that doctors asked them to administer a nebuliser to Satiksha four times a day. “My wife was not able to do it properly. She sought help from nurses, but they refused to help,” Kaushik alleged.
“My daughter had started to speak some words. On Saturday evening, we were told her condition had worsened. A ventilator was set up in the HDU. After she passed away, the doctors said she had a brain tumour. They never said anything like this earlier,” he alleged.
An officer of Phoolbagan police station, where the complaint was lodged, said the family alleged that the treating doctors and nurses reportedly misbehaved with them and did not communicate the condition of the child to them.
“Despite requests from the hospital authorities, the girl’s family did not opt for a post-mortem to establish any medical negligence,” said the officer.
Dilip Pal, the principal of the institute, said doctors tried hard over a fortnight to save the child but failed. “We gave our best. The family was kept informed about her condition, and we tried very hard to save her. She came to the hospital with respiratory distress and a history of convulsions,” said Pal.