ROURKELA: Tension prevailed at Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital (MCH) here after a 39-year-old patient reportedly fell to his death from the second floor ICU ward on Tuesday.
Protest erupted on the MCH premises after family members of the patient, identified as Manoj Dungdung of nearby Kuanrmunda block, alleged that he was killed by some of the hospital staff.
Manoj’s wife Sudha Dungdung said her husband was admitted to the MCH on Friday with liver complications. After undergoing treatment in the ICU, his condition had improved by Monday and he was supposed to be discharged on Tuesday.
She alleged that without informing her about Manoj’s death, the MCH authorities asked her to come to the hospital on Tuesday. After she arrived, the hospital staff made her sign various documents. “I became suspicious and repeatedly asked the authorities if anything was wrong with my husband. However, the hospital staff kept me waiting till I signed all the documents. They then disclosed that Manoj had died after falling from the ICU ward located on the second floor of the hospital building,” she claimed.
Sudha further said Manoj was healthy and looked normal when she met him on Monday night. His death has come as a rude shock for her and she is left with no one to look after her.
“I am unaware of the circumstances leading to my husband’s unnatural death. I suspect some hospital staff might have pushed him to death from the window of ICU ward,” she alleged.
IIC of RN Pali police station Rajendra Swain said on being informed about the patient’s death at around 11 am, police rushed to the hospital. An unnatural death case has been registered in this connection. “The footage of CCTV cameras in the hospital is being scanned to ascertain the circumstances that led to the patient’s fall and death,” he added.