Patna: A road accident victim, a video of whom being treated under the light of a torch at the Saharsa district sadar hospital had surfaced on social media on Monday, succumbed to her injuries at a private hospital in the state capital on Friday.

Family members of the woman, Rubi Kumari (32), claimed that she died because of the negligence of the sadar hospital doctors. Saharsa civil surgeon Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, however, denied that Rubi was operated upon under torchlight on Friday, March 16.

"The lady was getting stitches in her right hand in which she had got an injury," Singh told The Telegraph on Friday. "No operation was conducted. This is just a rumour doing the rounds. The video has been shot in the dressing room of the hospital."

The electricity, he said, went off at the hospital when Rubi was getting her stitches and the hospital administration had started the generator after five minutes.

"The video was made during the five minutes when the power went off," Singh said. "I have taken action against the grade IV employee, Shambhu Mallick, who administered stitches on the patient in the presence of the doctor. Besides, I have written to the department to initiate action against the doctor on duty, Ratan Kumar Jha, and also against the deputy superintendent, Dr Anil Kumar, because he is the main administrator of the hospital. The doctors present in the hospital were supposed to do the stitching of wounds and not the grade IV employee."

Singh said doctors at the Saharsa sadar hospital, around 197km east of the state capital, referred Rubi to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) or Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) because of her multiple injuries. "But her relatives took her to a nursing home in Samastipur and the nursing home people also referred the patient to a higher facility after which the patient was rushed to a private hospital in Patna where she died while undergoing treatment," he added. Singh said the March 16 incident happened during the day. "The accident victim was brought at around 7am to the hospital and not at night as claimed by people who are sharing the viral video," he added.

Rubi, wife of Kaushal Kishore from Kachra village in Saharsa, met with the accident when the vehicle she was travelling in collided with a police car.

Another victim of the accident died on the spot.

"The power condition at government basic health-care facilities has improved in the past few years," said social activist Guddu Baba. "Every primary health centre (PHC) has been provided a generator. It is a matter of probe whether the Saharsa sadar hospital ran out of diesel for the generator or the operator was not attentive, because in PHCs the generator is on within two to three minutes of a power cut."

Dr Ranjit Kumar, general secretary, Bihar Health Services Association, said the Saharsa sadar hospital doctors should have waited for power to come back before administering stitches on the patient. "Any major lapse could have happened in that condition," he said.