BENGALURU: Following directions from the High Court, Channapatna Town police registered an FIR against a government doctor in connection with the death of a four-and-a-half year old boy due to a snake bite. The doctor is alleged to have not administered correct injections to the boy though he was taken to hospital within the golden hour.
The boy’s father filed a writ petition in the High Court to instruct police to register an FIR against the medico. After hearing the case, the court directed police to register an FIR within 60 days. The boy had died in April. After the incident, the doctor is said to have been suspended.
The FIR was registered on Monday against Dr Ranjith, who was earlier working at the Government Hospital in Channapatna. N Sathvik, the boy who was bitten by a cobra on April 28, had succumbed two days later at a private hospital in RR Nagar. On April 30, Channapatna police registered a case of unnatural death.
Sathvik’s father N Niranjan (36), a BEL employee residing in Jalahalli, filed the writ petition in June, alleging that the death was due to negligence on the part of the doctors who did not treat his son with anti-snake venom though it was available. Police registered the FIR based on the complaint by Sathvik’s uncle C Kushal, on Monday.
Kushal said the cobra had twice bitten the little toe of Sathvik’s right foot, around 5.50pm. “By 6pm, within the golden hour, I took Sathvik to Channapatna Government Hospital on a bike. Dr Ranjith had given Sathvik TT and another injection instead of Anti-Snake Venom (ASV) injection. He then asked me to take Sathvik to some other hospital. The hospital did not even provide an ambulance.
By the time I hired a private ambulance to shift my nephew to a hospital in Bengaluru, the poison had already spread. We took him to a private hospital in RR Nagar where doctors, while going through the government hospital’s treatment chart, said that instead of giving the ASV injection, two other injections had been given. If Dr Ranjith had given the ASV injection, my nephew would have been alive. Though it was sheer negligence of the part of the doctor, there was no FIR against him. Then Sathvik’s father approached the High Court,” he added.