Dr KK Aggarwal and Ira Gupta
Three patients on ventilator support died on Tuesday
night at Tamil Nadu’s Madurai Government Hospital due to an unexpected power
failure. After the incident, the kin of the deceased patients sat on a dharna
in front of the hospital seeking action against the apathy of the concerned
officials.
According to the relatives of the deceased, three people
died & two more who were on ventilator were fighting for life after a power
cut that continued for nearly two & half hours in Madurai.
The power cut happened after rains accompanied by
thunderstorms lashed the temple town yesterday night.
Mallika (55), a resident of Melur, Madurai, Palaniyammal
(60), a native of Ottanchatiram, Dindigul, & Raveendran (52) from
Srivilliputtur, Virudhunagar are the patients who died after the ventilator
failure, sources said.
It was a 15 bedded emergency ward for accidental care of
the Madurai Government Hospital near Anna bus stand in Madurai. When the
thunderstorm happened, the power cut made the ventilators stop working.
Dean Vanitha Mani refuted the charge saying it was
natural death due to the patients’ poor physical health. While it is true there
was a power cut late in the evening, we had restored power immediately with the
help of power back up. The deceased patients have not died due to ventilator
failure. They were critical when their relatives brought them here from other
private hospitals, she said. Earlier, at least 14 patients on ventilator support had
died in a private hospital at Chennai due to a similar ventilator failure
following power outages during the Chennai floods of 2015. (Source:
LatestLaws.com]
Unexpected fire, electrical failures are all accidents and
will need to be compensated. These can also amount to negligence if the
hospital had no ambu bag backup, electrical back up or no policy for medical
accidents in the hospital. In the informed consent also there should always be
a mention of unexpected complications and death.
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