Just under two years after a nine-year-old boy passed away in a Hyderabad hospital, the Health Department ruled that ‘gross medical negligence’ by the private hospital led to his death.
On January 27, 2016, Hardik Jena was admitted to Olive Hospital after he cut his hand on some glass at Glendale Academy International School. The doctors at the hospital recommended the child undergo surgery to treat his wound.
After being operated on at around 7.30 pm, Hardik’s condition began rapidly deteriorating and he passed away the next day, on January 28.
Since then, Hardik’s father, Ashish Jena, has been demanding a speedy probe into the incident.
In a report submitted to the state's Health Department, the Medical Board, constituted by the Superintendent of the Osmania Gandhi Hospital, observed that the child had no previous illness and was made to undergo a surgery for a minor injury.
"After careful scrutiny of the documents, the opinion of the board is that there is gross negligence in executing their duties by the administration and doctors of the post-operative ward of Olive Hospitals, in Mehdipatnam," the report stated.
Speaking to TNM, Ashish Jena said, "The report is largely convincing, but I still want to point out that it ignored the responsibility of the doctors who conducted the operation, by blaming it on post-operative care."
Ashish also alleged that he was never called for any discussion by the board writing the report, adding that he now planned to follow-up the matter with the police and take the hospital to court.
The parents had lodged an FIR against the hospital at the Langar Houz police station.
"I already discussed the development with the investigating officer. There are a few spelling mistakes in the report, and it will take around 10 days for them to rectify this. Following this, the police said that they plan to file a chargesheet," he added.
The family had alleged a cover-up in February, telling TNM earlier, “No one was there to attend to our son for 10 hours after [his] admission to the ICU and we strongly feel that my son breathed his last while undergoing treatment, and the hospital authorities were just pretending that he was alive."
They had said that they were a little surprised that the doctors suggested going in for a surgery for such a minor injury, but later they agreed to the suggestion on the advice of a plastic surgeon, Dr Srikanth Kathi.
The parents noted that Hardik was healthy and active even after the injury, as he was playing games on his father's phone. Only after the alleged overdose of anesthesia and medical negligence, his condition became critical.
The family also pointed out in April this year, that the post-mortem report did not provide the cause of death, only mentioning that the forensic report on the case was still pending.