KOCHI: The Kalpetta District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) has informed the Kerala High Court that there is every reason to infer that there was gross negligence on the part of the authorities of the Government Sarvajana Higher Secondary School in Sulthan Batheri while dealing with the snakebite incident which caused the death of a 10-year-old child. There can hardly be any doubt that the hapless, innocent child breathed her last as the school authorities and the hospital failed to provide adequate attention, said the DLSA report.
As the child complained about snakebite, the headmaster, teachers and staff had the moral responsibility to see that the child was taken to a hospital without delay. If they had acted without delay, the child perhaps could have been saved. “Same is the case with the Taluk Hospital authorities. The hospital did not administer antivenom on the ground that the paediatric ventilator was not available. The child was kept at the hospital for one hour which became fatal. This amounts to gross culpable negligence on the part of the doctor to save the child,” stated the report.
The report was submitted to Justice C K Abdul Rehim, executive chairman of the Kerala State Legal Services Authority and the court is examining whether a suo motu case would be initiated.In his report, A Haris, district judge and chairman of the Kalpetta District Legal Services Authority, stated that no effective steps had been taken by the teachers or staff of the school as part of providing first aid. Nothing prevented the school authorities from taking the child to a nearby hospital at the earliest or contacting medical personnel over the phone. Nothing had been done in the initial 30 minutes after the snakebite was reported. The Taluk Hospital is a stone’s throw from the school. One could reach the hospital from the school in five minutes. CCTV footage revealed the sad sight of the parent of the child carrying the little girl on his shoulder to take her to hospital in an autorickshaw without any help being extended to him. Nobody accompanied them. The teachers proceeded to the hospital only after eight minutes. This was not at all expected from them, said the report.
Abdul Azeez, father of the deceased, told the doctor that antivenom be administered to the child, but it was not done and the kid was referred to Medical College, Kozhikode. According to the doctors, antivenom was not administered for want of paediatric ventilator. The necessity of paediatric ventilator arises only in case of a child developing some respiratory complications owing to an allergic reaction. There was no justification for not administering the antivenom.