The dean and the paediatric department head of a government hospital in Maharashtra’s Nanded, where deaths of 38 patients including infants this week triggered outrage, have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder over the death of a 22-year-old woman and her newborn on Wednesday.
Anjali Waghmare, the woman, was admitted to the hospital on September 30 and delivered the baby the next day. According to the first information report (FIR) filed in the case, Waghmare’s family was told it was a normal delivery and both the mother and baby were well good before they were informed that the two were critical.
“The doctors said Anjali was bleeding heavily and the baby’s condition was deteriorating. When we went and gave the medicines and blood units, the doctor was unavailable. Seeing my daughter’s condition and her child’s critical state, I met the dean and begged him to provide doctors and treatment. But he kept me waiting outside his room,” said Waghmare’s father, Kamaji Mohan Tompe, in his complaint. “If the dean and doctors had treated my daughter and her child on time, they would have been alive. We spent ₹45,000 on medicines too.”
Dr Shankarao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital dean Shyamrao Wakode and the paediatric department head have been booked under the Indian Penal Code’s Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (common interest) on Tompe’s complaint.
An FIR was earlier registered against ruling Shiv Sena Parliament member Hemant Patil on Wednesday under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly making Wakode clean a toilet after the deaths at the hospital.
Waghmare’s family, which refused to initially accept her body, claimed she gave birth to a girl child but hospital records said it was a boy, who was one among the eleven neonates (less than a month old) who died at the hospital on October 2 when 24 deaths were reported in 24 hours.
Doctors said Waghmare’s newborn had meconium aspiration syndrome and that the baby’s brain and other organs did not get enough oxygen and nutrients before, during or right after birth.
Waghmare’s husband, Manchak, said they first took her to a primary healthcare centre from where she was referred to a sub-district hospital. “Since her condition was not improving, the doctors instructed us to get her to Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital,” he said.
A six-member committee set up to probe the deaths pointed at a lack of resources and manpower at the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital. In its report, the committee said that of the 24 patients who died between September 30 and October 1, 17 were referred from private and peripheral government hospitals in critical condition with multiple comorbidities. Of the 24, 11 were neonates who were on ventilator support. The Bombay high court said the reasons given for deaths “cannot be accepted” as it took suo motu cognisance of the matter.
