Did Nair hospital doctor's negligence lead to 80-year-old's death?

Prema Choudhary, wife of deceased Govind Choudhary (Below). Pics/Ashish Raje

An 80-year-old Grant Road resident knocked down by a tempo died in the wee hours of Saturday, but his family members have trained their guns on the doctors at Nair hospital, who allegedly discharged him after basic treatment and failed to detect the serious internal damage he had suffered in the accident.

His family, who is preparing to submit a complaint against the doctors for medical negligence, also alleged that the resident doctors not only ignored the injured senior citizen, but were, in fact, busy taking selfies while he kept crying in pain.

Drama in hospital
Govind Choudhary, a resident of New Chikhalwadi who worked in a laundry at Kemp's Corner, was on his way to work on his bicycle when the tempo hit him from behind. "He used to travel by cycle because he loved it. Our son told him to switch to a motorcycle many times, but he preferred the bicycle," said his wife Prema. "On Friday evening, we got a call from the police saying he had met with an accident."

When the family reached the casualty ward at Nair hospital, they found Govind with his left leg badly injured. His son Jay said, "I reached the hospital at 9.30 pm; father was crying out in pain. His leg was injured and his lower back hurt as well. Resident doctor Tejas Apte told us to get an X-ray of the leg done, after which he merely said the toes had been damaged and bandaging and medicines would take care of it."

Govind was allegedly not given a bed and moved all over the hospital on a wheelchair. "Doctors were barely paying any attention to him. He was given a bed only after he repeatedly complained of back pain. But after that too, no one came to check on him. Instead, Dr Apte was seen clicking selfies with 12 other resident doctors. It was only after Jay and I chided them for their behaviour while his father lay writhing in pain that they attended to him, and Dr Apte bandaged his toes, saying he would be fine," said Jay's friend Sadanand Jadhav.

In the dead of the night
After Govind was discharged at 3 am, family members took him home. "He went to the washroom and collapsed. We all got scared, but he told us he was fine and told us to go to sleep," sobbed Prema, adding, "After 20 minutes or so, I noticed he wasn't breathing. I woke up Jay, who tried to rouse him, but there was no response."

Govind was taken to Nair hospital, where he was declared dead. Post-mortem report gave the cause of death as "Neurogenic shock due to blunt trauma to testes and pelvis in an alleged case of road traffic accident". "My father was as healthy as a youngster; it was the negligence of doctors that killed him," alleged Jay.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested the tempo driver, Jamel Muda Dalvi, 54, and booked him under IPC section 304 (a) (causing death by negligence) and relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Also read: Mumbai MRI death: Rajesh Maru's family send legal notice to BMC, Nair hospital seeking Rs 86 lakh

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