VIJAYAWADA: The death of a 25-year-old woman reportedly due to dengue led to a protest by her family at the RTC hospital at Vidyadharapuram on Monday. The family alleged that delay in diagnosis led to her death. “Doctors at the RTC hospital failed to diagnose the fever even when she was treated there for four days,” they said. The woman died at a private hospital on Sunday night.
While the hospital management promised to suspend the doctor responsible for the alleged failure to diagnose the fever correctly, a case of negligence was registered against the doctor and a lab technician by the police following a complaint by the woman’s family.
The victim, identified as P Sujatha, wife of Sivayya, who is a bus conductor at Vidyadharapuram RTC depot, was suffering from fever since last Tuesday. According to her relatives, she was admitted to the RTC super-speciality hospital on December 19.
When her health condition deteriorated, she was shifted to a private hospital. On December 22, Sujatha was referred to Andhra Hospital in Gollapudi, where she was diagnosed with very low blood platelet count of 20,000 and blood transfusion was done on her. “Doctors at the RTC hospital prescribed high doses of antibiotics that affected Sujatha’s liver and she, later, went into coma. It was only their negligence that killed her and we demand suspension of doctors and technicians for not diagnosing the illness in time,” the family members said.
Leaders of the YSRC and CPI voiced their solidarity with the bereaved family by participating in the dharna.Speaking to TNIE, RTC hospital committee convener Sk Subhani said, “Upon knowing about Sujatha’s health condition, the management inquired into the matter and questioned the doctors why the lab reports showed dengue negative. Considering the demand from the relatives, the management has promised to suspend the doctor who failed to provide proper treatment to Sujatha.” Bhavanipuram CI DKN Mohan Reddy said, “Based on the complaint of her family, a case under Section 304A of IPC was registered against Dr S Lakshmi and the lab technician. The body was sent for postmortem.” However, Andhra Hospital reports mentioned ‘septic shock and respiratory failure’ as the reasons for her death.