Sarfaraz (left) and his brothers

Siliguri, May 23: “I knew Sarfaraz was sinking fast. His mother turned desperately for help to the two nurses on duty. They only looked back blankly. No one called for a doctor. They killed our child, They killed him,” sobbed six-and-half-year-old Sarfaraz Islam’s aunt Jamila Khatun as she talked about his death.

The child died at Siliguri sub-divisional hospital on May 10 due to alleged negligence of the attending hospital staff.

When The Telegraph team visited the boy’s family, the members could do nothing but speak about the chirpy little boy who no longer pranced about the house. The words were interspersed with tears and wails and sometimes silence that hung heavy on the family.

“Had we known that the hospital would turn into his deathbed, we would never have taken him there. But how could we have known?” said Zarina Begum, the grandmother of Sarfaraz, her face breaking into a hundred creases as she burst into tears.

Controlling herself, she continued: “Sarfaraz was a bright and lively child. He used to study in Class 1 at the nearby English-medium school. On May 1, he complained of knee ache after he got back from the school. But there were no bruises or swelling in the area he was pointing at. We took him to the hospital the next day. The rest you know.”

Stopping her speech, she suddenly clutched the hands of her two remaining grandsons — Dilbar (9) and Shahnawaz (4) — who huddled close to her outside the bamboo hut. His mother, Shabnam Parven, overpowered by pain had ceased to talk.

Asked about the incident, Khatum said: “When the boy left for the hospital the fourth time on the morning of May 10, he left us forever. He was admitted to the hospital around 11 am. An hour later, the doctor attending to him gave him an injection. After this, Sarfaraz started groaning and complaining about a burning sensation. Within an hour he became numb. No nurse came to our help. They did not even call the doctors, they killed him,” she said.

By then, a group of neighbours had gathered at the hut, each speaking a line on the little boy and the negligence of the hospital staff.

The death of the boy does not seem to have changed anything for the district health administration.

After an FIR was lodged against the doctors by Nurul Islam, Sarfaraz’s father, accusing them of negligence, the district health department constituted a fact-finding committee to probe the death.

“The investigation is underway. The panel members are now recording statements of the accused. Nobody will be spared, if found guilty,” the district chief medical officer of health, had declared yesterday.

The Telegraph team, however, found today that the investigation is yet to start. The official intimation, which was issued by the DCMOH to the three-member probe panel on May 22, reached the team today.

“I have just received the official letter. Nothing can be expected to develop during the next two days. Then, we three have to sit and decide on the way we are going to probe the case. Things will start rolling only from Tuesday,” said one of the panel members, a senior health officer.

The death certificate issued by the hospital states that the boy died of septicaemia, an infection of the blood.