St George Hospital lets shrapnel go undetected and JJ Hospital discovers it 15 days later
Sanjay Kathar still has shrapnel inside his body after a grenade exploded near him during the 26/11 terror attacks in Colaba
St George Hospital lets shrapnel go undetected and JJ Hospital discovers it 15 days later
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FROM the balcony of his house in Colaba Market, 22-year-old Sanjay Kathar can see Nariman House but he wants to forget it all. The call centre employee who was injured in the attack on Nariman House came home from the hospital yesterday and is going to spend a month home but every day away from work is causing him worry. "I have a personal loan of Rs 2 lakh on my house, and my parents and brothers to think of. I've switched three hospitals within the last month and I'm bleeding dry. That said, I'm so glad to see the outside of a hospital finally,"said Kathar
Kathar was injured when he went searching for his brothers after news of the firing was conveyed to him by his mother. "The grenade exploded in front of me and I ran in the opposite direction not realising that I had been hit. The pain then made me faint and I was taken to St George Hospital where I was operated."
The operation however failed to have all the shrapnel extracted and went undetected until JJ Hospital authorities, where he was shifted to the next day, had tests conducted nearly a fortnight later. "He was in pain everyday and finally when he began to cry and say that we should leave him to die, we thought enough is enough,"said his mother Nanda, who then had him shifted to Bombay Hospital with the help of NGO I Love Mumbai.
Kathar added that the time spent in the two state hospitals was horrifying. "When I went to St George Hospital, the two patients who went into the operation theatre before me died on the table. I couldn't sleep a wink in JJ Hospital. The only thing that was keeping me moving on was the fact that I was the only breadwinner for the family,"said Kathar who has two younger siblings. Kathar's father Laxman is a retired tourist car driver and his mother is a housewife. "Who'd take care of them? I tried even getting cover from my insurance company but I was told that they didn't cover terror injury."
u00a0Bombay Hospital doctor P L Tiwari who treated Kathar said that the chances of gross negligence were completely ruled out. "It's difficult to say in retrospect what might have happened if the shrapnel was detected earlier, but these injuries take time to heal. The family was a little panicky after the formation of pus around the wound and so they wanted the shift. Of course, there is a difference between government and private hospitals but I'm convinced that the doctors did all they could,"he said.
JJ authorities denied that there was negligence on the part of their doctors.
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