2-year-old dies in JJ Hospital, father blames negligence

A Palghar police constable has approached JJ Marg police station to file a complaint against the doctors of JJ Hospital after his two-year-old boy died due to the alleged 'medical negligence'.

According to constable Wasim Shaikh, his two-year-old son Ajaan was bitten by a dog a few days ago. He was taken to JJ Hospital on March 26, after he complained of restlessness. Doctors said the symptoms appeared to be of rabies and began treating him without proper diagnosis.

On March 28, while collecting the child's sputum for a pathology test, one of the doctors injured him accidentally while removing the suction pump from his mouth. This caused excessive bleeding, which eventually choked his lungs, the father alleged. Ajaan died on April 1.

JJ Hospital, however, has denied the allegation. "We provided all treatment according to protocol and there was no negligence on our part. The boy was in a critical condition and we did our best to treat him. We have received a letter from the police and we will send them a report after conducting an inquiry," said doctor Sanjay Surase from JJ Hospital.

"The doctors did not take necessary precautions while taking the sputum, which injured Ajaan's throat, leading to his death eventually. They are trying to hide this fact. Despite repeated requests. They didn't agree to conduct an X-ray of the throat, which could have ascertained how my son died," Shaikh said.

"There was negligence right from day one. I was repeatedly requesting the doctors to diagnose my son before starting the treatment, but they did not listen. When he died, I was told the cause of death is rabies. However, we had visited another hospital earlier, and their lab tests didn't mention rabies," Shaikh said.

We have registered an ADR in the matter and have asked the hospital to conduct an inquiry," said Shirish Gaikwad, Senior Police Inspector of JJ Marg police station.