Eighteen-month-old Gagana was moved from one hospital to another for treatment before she died on Monday, a few hours after she fell from a terrace. The horrific incident highlights the poor state of medical facilities in the city.
Gagana, daughter of Suma and Venkatesh, who is a daily wage earner, fell from the terrace in the morning while playing in her house in JC Road, Bangalore.
Three hospitals rejected her parents’ plea to admit the child and start treatment, saying that they were short on ventilators, reported the Bangalore Mirror.
According to the newspaper, Gagana, who was bleeding profusely on the head, was brought to St. Martha’s Hospital on Nrupathunga Road where the doctors conducted an initial assessment. Because of the lack of a neurosurgeon and unavailability of ventilators, they directed the couple to NIMHANS. When the couple reached the hospital at 11:30 am, they were asked to go to Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) on an adjoining campus, as “there were no ventilators”.
The Times of India quoted Venkatesh saying,
We reached IGICH around 12.15 pm, but despite our pleas, they didn’t admit our girl. For over one hour, she was left in the ambulance. We kept asking them to take her in but they didn’t respond to us properly.
“We were anxious about our girl’s recovery but they were insensitive and abusive. It was only when media and our relatives gathered, around 1.15 pm, that they admitted our girl and put her on the ventilator,” he added.
However, the child’s condition did not get any better and hence Gagana’s parents were advised to take her to NIMHANS where Gagana underwent a surgery, said the TOI report.
When the couple was looking to admit the child after surgery, IGICH told them that they would not be able to admit the child as they were short on ventilators.
According to the TOI report, Venkatesh and his relatives alleged that one of the hospital personnel in IGICH used abusive language when they insisted that the hospital take the child in under their care.
Speaking to TOI, Dr Asha Benakappa, director of IGICH refuted the allegations of misbehaviour and said that were trying to accommodate the child.
“Another child was shifted to a non-invasive ventilator, which delayed her admission,” she added.
This is a news -aggregation from Times of India and Bangalore Mirror.
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