A seven-month-old girl suffering from bronchopneumonia died on Wednesday after the driver of a private ambulance took off her oxygen mask despite the parents’ pleas that the doctor had advised continuous support.

There were allegedly no trolleys with oxygen masks in sight when the baby was taken to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) — nothing unusual, say doctors of government hospitals.

The driver of Tara Ma Ambulance Service, Jai Singh, was arrested after the girl’s father lodged a complaint. “The girl was taken to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital in a private ambulance. The death seems to have occurred because of the private ambulance operator. But we will conduct a probe to find out if the government hospital was also responsible in any way,” said health secretary Sanjay Mitra.

Neha Malik, daughter of Sonu, 22, a factory worker, and Putul, 18, of Dasnagar was admitted to Howrah District Hospital around 11.55am with acute bronchopneumonia. As the baby’s condition deteriorated around 2.20pm, she was put on oxygen and referred to CMCH.

The girl’s parents hired a private ambulance and first took the baby to a nearby nursing home. But the nursing home refused admission, saying it did not have the required infrastructure.

The baby was then rushed to CMCH. “Once we reached, the driver opened the door of the van and took the oxygen mask off. I told him that the doctor who was treating my girl at the Howrah hospital had told us not to remove the mask for even a little while. But he said he had seen many such patients and that nothing would happen,” Putul said.

Drivers of private ambulances are often in a hurry to get to the next assignment and unwilling to take oxygen cylinders out of their vehicles, complain patients’ relatives.

“Even as we were carrying Neha in, she started having hiccups. We had to wait for a ticket and when we took her up to the paediatric ward, she was declared dead,” the mother said.

Paediatricians said absence of an oxygen mask even for a few minutes could be deadly for a bronchopneumonia patient. “If the girl’s condition was serious, the bronchioles of her lungs would have been full of phlegm and therefore unable to perform their normal function, leading to carbon dioxide accumulation. This could be fatal,” said a paediatrician unwilling to be named. “In such cases, even a few minutes can make a difference of life and death. The oxygen support should not be removed at all.”