One-month-old infant dies at Karimganj Civil Hospital due to alleged doctor’s negligence, nurses tried to refer dead patient to SMCH

A one-month-old infant died at the Karimganj Civil Hospital, allegedly due to the negligence of the doctor. The infant was admitted to the Civil Hospital with troubled breathing. While admitted for treatment, the parents alleged that the child specialist doctor’s absence from duty killed the infant. The parents had even asked to shift the infant to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital, but the nurses assured them of progress in treatment. Last evening all of a sudden, the nurses in the pediatric ward asked the parents to shift the baby to SMCH.

According to the parents, they were asked to sign the discharge papers without seeing their baby first, but when they went to see the baby they found the baby dead in oxygen support at the ICU. This led to a scuffle at the hospital and the paramilitary forces had to be called to bring the situation under control.

On December 14, the family from Fakirbazar came to the hospital with their child and they were referred to the pediatric ward for treatment. The infant had troubled breathing and Dr Jiaul Karim was the consulting doctor for the patient. The parents alleged that, days passed but the doctor didn’t see the patient to know what the issue was. Due to this alleged negligence of the doctor, the patient died at the hospital a few days bacm. But what happened later is a blatant inhuman act.

The patient’s father Nazrul Islam said, “We could see that our baby was not being attended to by the doctors and so we asked them yesterday to shift to SMCH. We were referred to Dr Jiaul Karim at the hospital but he never showed up at the hospital while he continued his private practice. Two days passed and we requested the nurses to discharge the patient as we were ready to shift our baby to Silchar. The nurses asked us to wait as they will call an ambulance with oxygen support for discharge. Meanwhile, the nurses asked us to sign the paper of discharge. But we were not ready to sign without seeing our baby. But the nurse started to force us. When we went inside to see, we found the baby dead. When we realised that, the nurse dropped our baby and ran away to lock them inside a room”.

The grieving father also mentioned, “They also called the police for their protection after they killed our baby. Why are nurses treating the patient while doctors continue their private practice?”

When the family members of the deceased infant gathered at the hospital, everyone broke into tears. Sensing the situation could get out of hand, the hospital beefed up paramilitary forces and everything was under control. The family of the members have however mentioned, they will file an FIR against the doctor for his lack of responsibility and absence from duty. This is not the first case where a patient had to suffer for the doctor’s negligence at the Karimganj Civil Hospital. It remains to be seen, what actions the authorities will take against this doctor.