BENGALURU:The family members of a 53-year-old patient who died at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases on Sunday protested before the hospital claiming that a ventilator failure due to a power cut caused his death.
However, the hospital authorities stoutly denied this. While they admitted that there was a power failure and the ventilator stopped functioning as a result, they said the patient died due to complications from swine flu.
B G Ganesh, an auto consultant and a resident of Bapujinagar, was admitted on February 20. The doctors said Ganesh was suffering from H1N1 influenza and was being treated. However, he died in the early hours of Sunday.
Uma, a family member, said that the ventilator stopped functioning at 3 am following a power cut. She said that on alerting the hospital authorities, they were asked to wait till it was repaired.
“It was because the ventilator shut down that he died. He was declared dead at 4.30 am and we were forced to take the body in the morning without a postmortem,” she said.
The victim’s family claimed that he had nearly recovered and was shifted from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to the H1N1 ward on Friday. However, since he experienced respiratory problems on Sunday, he was shifted to the ICU again.
H1N1 Patient Dies, Family Stages Protest
What Hospital Says
Dr Shashidhar Buggi, medical director, RGICD, said, “There was a power cut. However, we have a 250kw generator for the campus. There were technical issues due to which there was a power cut in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. At 4.15 am, I got a call from the hospital regarding the power cut. Soon, we had instructed that all patients be treated in hand-held ventilators and be moved to the surgical ICU.”
He added, “His condition was critical. His condition was co-morbid (relating to a medical condition that co-occurs with another) as he was obese. This is the cause for death.”
‘Report will be sought’
Minister for Medical Education Dr Sharan Prakash R Patil said he had asked the officials concerned to visit the spot.
“A report on the incident will be sought. No compensation will be given to the family. However, if doctors are found guilty, action will be taken against them,” he added.
H1N1 Cases 988
H1N1 positive cases have touched 988 while 45 people have died. In BBMP limits, 516 cases were reported, while in Bengaluru Urban district, there were 239 cases.
