A family from Shalimar area in the city outskirts Monday staged a protest accusing a doctor at prestigious SKIMS of ‘murdering’ their child while performing a medical procedure which, they said he was not authorised to perform.
The doctor, according to protesting family has gone into hiding, a fact admitted by the senior doctors at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura.
After initial reluctance police has filed a case and said it was investigating the matter.
Likewise SKIMS authorities too have instituted an in-house inquiry to probe the alleged medical negligence.
Protesting family members appeared at Press Enclave Srinagar Monday afternoon and staged a protest. They were accusing one doctor Faheem of negligence leading to boys death.
The said doctor performed tracheostomy of the child without consulting the incharge doctor and despite objections from the parents of the boy, they said.
The two and half year old baby boy Eliya Ali son of Muhammad Ibrahim was suffering from Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) which is a rapid-onset muscle weakness caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system.
“The senior doctors conducted a successful medical procedure called tracheostomy at the Hospital Theater during which a tube is inserted into the windpipe of the patient to open the restricted airway and enable breathing. However, on Saturday night when the mother was feeding the baby at PICU ward number 7, Dr Faheem conducted another tracheostomy without the consent of the parents. He forcibly evicted mother from the ward and to our shock, the baby died within a span of 20 minutes,” said Mayasar Ali, a relative of the deceased boy.
“The baby was declared dead at around 10.30 Saturday night, and when we approached police, the doctor in order to mislead them, conducted ECG on the dead body and later placed it on ventilator at around 11. 30 PM. He tried to give an impression to police that baby was alive while the hospital record showed the timing of his death at 10 PM,” he said.
Family also displayed the documents duly signed by a senior doctor claiming that the doctor in question is not traceable after the death of the child.
The protesters appealed authorities to take stringent action against the erring doctor who performed medical procedure without consulting his seniors and that too against the consent of the victims parents.
Talking to Kashmir Observer Medical Superintendent of SKIMS Dr. Syed Amin Tabish said, “We have constituted an inquiry team and they will submit a report within two days. The accused Doctor if found guilty will be punished according to law.” Tabish further said the committee has invited the victim family to submit details before it.