COIMBATORE: Caught between two hospitals, or may be an agent of a private hospital at the CMCH, an 18-year-old boy who met with an accident on Thursday night, died allegedly due to delay in getting treatment.
The boy, M Siddarth, who was waiting for his Standard XII results, was returning home from a gym when his motorcycle hit a divider near the Ukkadam Bypass.
“He was travelling alone, and was taken to on a 108 ambulance to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital at 10.50 pm. He was conscious and even spoke to his mother, informing her of the accident,” says one of his school friends, who had gathered along with the family to file a complaint to the police.
A complaint was filed as someone claiming to be Siddarth’s brother asked the CMCH doctors to discharge him so that he could be taken to a new private hospital in Saibaba Colony for treatment. “Our question is that how can they allow someone who is not a family member to take the boy to another hospital?” asked Siddarth’s uncle P A Vadivel. “We have submitted a complaint to the CMCH authorities, who in turn have handed over the complaint with the case sheet to the police.”
According to Siddarth’s family, the preliminary autopsy report suggests that he died because he did not receive treatment for a long time. .“There are many agents in the hospital, who convince the patients and families to seek treatment at private hospitals, for a cut. We have observed that more than five hospitals have tricked patients into doing so regularly. This involves both small and big private hospitals, whose agents convince the families of better treatment facility at private hospitals,” said a doctor who works at CMCH.