Blame game over recent death of two boys in civic hospitals

Corporators on Wednesday’s standing committee meet raised this point, alleging that lack of ventilators caused the death in both cases. While Suraj had a heart valve problem, Sahil had suffered cranial injuries. Both required medical ventilator to facilitate oxygen into their lungs, but there was a shortage of operational ventilators in the hospitals.

“In the IPCU unit of the Sion Hospital, there are just 11 beds and three ventilators, of which only one works. These figures in itself speak how under equipped our hospitals are,” said Mangesh Satamkar, corporator from Sion and a standing committee member. Corporators allege that despite spending huge amounts on medical equipments in civic hospitals, nothing substantial is done. “We had made provisions to order 100 ventilators¿ how many of them have come so far? Order as many as are required because if anyone dies, will the dean of the hospital take the responsibility,” said Ravindra Waikar, standing committee chairman. It’s ridiculous that we spend so much money on medical equipment and yet we are unable to prevent the deaths of so many people,” Satamkar said.

Meanwhile, the KEM Hospital denied negligence its part. “The boy died as the case was very complicated. There was no negligence on the part of our doctors. Corporators can’t blame us without having enough proof,” said Dr Sanjay Oak, dean, KEM hospital.

However, Sion Hospital admitted that hospital has only three ventilators. “There are three ventilators in our hospital. Out of these, two ventilators were already being used when Sahil was admitted, while the one is not in working condition. Moreover, the IPCU ward was also full,” said Dr Sandhya Kamat, dean, Sion Hospital.