Burn victims wait for bed for 15 hrs

Two burn victims had to wait for over 15 hours at Bhagwati Hospital yesterday, waiting to be referred to another civic hospital, until their relatives finally lost patience and shifted them to a costlier private hospital equipped with the necessary amenities. A fire broke out at Leader Gas Company in Malad (West), severely burning five people and killing an eight-month-old boy, Ayush Chaubey.

While Bramhadevi Chaubey (65), Nandlal Chaubey (32), and Panchlal Chaubey (24) were sent to the nearby Sanjeevani Hospital in Malad, the three other victims, Pankaj Kashyap, Sonu Yadav and baby Ayush were rushed to the civic-run Bhagwati Hospital, in the early hours of the morning. Ayush died at the hospital during the treatment. Pankaj and Sonu suffered 90 and 65 per cent burns respectively.

Bhagwati Hospital, lacking the infrastructure to handle patients with more than 60 per cent burns, wanted to refer the two to Kasturba Hospital.u00a0However, Kasturba Hospital's burn ward had no vacant beds at the time. Thus doctors at Bhagwati asked the patients' kin to wait for a day in Bhagwati, or take their patients to another facility. They refused to refer them to any facility other than Kasturba. Rameshwar, Sonu's friend, said, "We requesteddoctors to recommend a hospital where he could get medical treatment."

Dr Umesh Aigal, medical superintendent at Kasturba said, "At times the hospital beds are occupied. Other civic hospitals also have burn wards, and doctors can shift their patients there." Dr Meena Kumari, head of the surgery department at Sion Hospital, said, "We have a 14-bed intensive care unit for burn patients. As a civic hospital, we are duty bound to admit any patient referred from any hospital, subject to the availability of beds."

Irked by the non-availability of beds, Pankaj and Sonu's relatives ultimately gathered money and shifted the victims to a private hospital with an ICU, as late as 3 pm yesterday.

The Other Side
Dr Vijaya Bhatt, deputy superintendent, Bhagwati Hospital, said, "We usually refer our patients to Nair Hospital. We prefer to refer burn victims to Kasturba. Since there was no vacancy there, we offered to keep the patients in our hospital till beds are vacated in Kasturba." She added, "Kasturba Hospital has a dedicated burn ward, so we prefer to send our patients there."