Teenage girl dies of food poisoning, family alleges med negligence Bandipora: The death of a teenager girl due to food poisoning triggered off strong protests on Tuesday against the hospital authorities here in this north Kashmir district. Reports and eyewitnesses said that Ghulam Mohammad Lone of Mangnipora, his middle-aged wife, Shahmala and five other family members were brought to the district hospital, Bandipora for treatment around 11:00 pm after they were found unconscious by their neighbours. The family, reports said, had fallen unconscious after consuming dinner. When the doctors at the hospital started treatment of the patients, Lone’s teenage daughter Muneera passed away. Others including Lone, his wife, daughter Gulshana, son Hilal Ahmad, and his wife Shameema were referred to Srinagar hospital for specialized treatment. Muneera’s death, however, infuriated her relatives who alleged that the doctor, who treated upon her, was negligent. They staged protests in the hospital demanding action against the doctor. Later, senior officials of the health department and police reached the hospital fearing situation to go out of the hands. However, when the body of Muneera was handed over to her relatives after post-mortem, they took it to the main chowk and staged demonstrations against the doctor. Chanting protesters, the relatives reiterated their demand for the punishment of the ‘guilty’ doctor “My niece requested the doctor not to insert pipe in her stomach. However, the doctor didn’t listen to her. He inserted the pipe and later trampled her. She died because of the doctor’s negligence. He should be punished for this negligence,” Abdur Rashid, a relative said. However, the officials of the health department refuted the allegations. Block Medical Officer (BMO) Bandipore, Dr Said-ur-Rehman said that the family of seven were brought to the hospital by the locals for treatment after they found them unconscious at their home. “It was a case of food poisoning. Our doctor tried his best to save the life of the girl. He even washed the stomach of the girl, but we could not save her,” Rehman said. He said that once the post mortem report is received, all the doubts of the family will be cleared.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 07:00:22 +0000