Sarita Devi andJawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital. Picture by Ashok Sinha

The family of a Bhagalpur patient, who died on the operating table, feels cheated as the government has failed to come to their assistance after the tragedy.

Arvind Saw passed away this May after being administered local anaesthesia at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital. His family alleged that he was administered sub-standard drugs. Now, his family feels cheated.

The wife of the deceased claimed neither has the health department provided the family any compensation nor has any official visited their house, around 270km east of Patna, since May.

“My husband was the family’s only bread earner. I have five children. Now, I am running my family with borrowed money from relatives and neighbours. How long would I survive like this, I don’t know what to do. I have written at least three letters to the district administration, asking for compensation but only to be disappointed. Of my five children, the eldest one is my 18-year-old daughter Chanda. I have two more daughters. If I am not given any compensation, how would I get them married?” asked Sarita Devi on Tuesday, tears in her eyes.

If this wasn’t enough, there’s more that pains her.

“The state government officials did not have time to visit my house in the past five months. That is even more painful for me,” Sarita added.

Sarita came to Patna on Monday to visit the chief minister’s janata durbar with her application.

Sources said a two-member committee set up by the health department to probe Saw’s death submitted its report to the department around August-end.

The report stated that while there was nothing wrong in the administration of the drugs, it was the local anaesthetic lignocaine and adrenaline injection that caused Saw’s death. Sources said the amount of adrenaline given was 100 times more than the requirement, which caused instant cardiac arrest. Saw was supposed to be operated upon for an ear ailment but died after 10 minutes of being administered the drug.

The health department and district administration passed the buck on providing help to Saw’s family around.

On Tuesday, S.K. Sharma, joint secretary, health, first said the Bhagalpur district administration should compensate the bereaved family. Then he went on to say there was a need to conduct another probe to find if anything was wrong in administering the drug.

“It is still to be proved that the patient died because of being administered sub-standard drugs. The same batch of drug was provided to other government hospitals too, but nothing as much happened there. So, first another probe needs to be conducted,” he said.

Despite several attempts, The Telegraph could not contact Brajesh Mehrotra, principal secretary, health.

Bhagalpur district magistrate Birendra Kumar Yadav said: “The district administration is not supposed to provide monetary assistance to the victim’s family because the matter is not related to the district administration.”

In the midst of all this, RJD MP Pappu Yadav claimed that he met Savita Devi on Tuesday and provided her Rs 50,000.

Members of the Indian Medical Association, however, said the government should award compensation to the victim’s family as soon as possible.

Sunil Kumar Singh, the vice-president of the state chapter of Indian Medical Association, said: “When the health department’s committee has accepted that the drug administered to Saw was sub-standard, there is no point of a debate. The government must provide compensation to the victim’s family at the earliest because justice delayed is justice denied.”