Mid-Day Impact: Probe nails six for death of tribal boy

The medical superintendent of Cottage hospital where a tribal child from Palghar died of pneumonia after travelling 100 km faces a departmental inquiry for lsquolack of supervisionrsquo The districtrsquos civic surgeon took action after midday reported about the familyrsquos sufferings He has issued a show cause notice to the superintendent He also learnt that the hospital has six ambulances but not a single driver was on duty on January 25 Along with the superintendent nearly a dozen other staffers could be suspendedThe deceased child Ajay Pardhi 6 was referred to Cottage hospital by a rural hospital Within hours of reaching there Ajay died and the family took his body home to Payarwadi village in Mokhada taluka 40 km away on a motorcycle as the hospital failed to provide an ambulance After middayrsquos coverpage story a team from the civil surgeonrsquos office reached Cottage hospital to understand what went wrong and why the Pardhi family was deprived of the ambulance serviceAjay Pardhi the child PicsHanif PatelTalking to midday Dr Sanjay Bodade the civil surgeon of the Palghar district said ldquoThere are six ambulances in the hospital yet Ajayrsquos family was not given an ambulance to take his body home We have initiated an enquiry and have sent a show cause notice to the medical superintendent of Cottage hospital Dr Ramdas Marad for his lack of supervisionrdquo ldquoAfter the death of the child Dr Marad was notified and he informed the security guard But the security guard did not properly handle the matter of arranging an ambulancerdquolsquoLack of supervision everywherersquoDr Bodade explained ldquoWhen a death happens in the hospital the onduty medical officer or the nurse who is handling the case of the patient should arrange an ambulance before handing over the body to the family But nothing as such happened Dr Marad should have given a clear instruction about it to the onduty medical officer or the staff nurse The staff was carelessrdquo ldquoWhy did Dr Marad call the security guard to arrange an ambulance We have found lack of supervision on his part everywhere Hence we issued a showcause notice to himrdquo Dr Bodade addedAjay Pardhirsquos father and mother with his photographDuring the departmental enquiry the civil surgeon also learnt that the hospital has six ambulance drivers ldquoHowever none of the drivers were present in the hospital on January 25 as hospital matron Vanmala Rathod hadnrsquot made a roster for them It is the prime responsibility of the matron to make a roster of ambulance drivers Instead of doing her work properly she is freely taking medical leaves The medical superintendent should keep a check on why she is taking leaves so frequentlyrdquo Dr Bodade said Sources told midday that when the security guard called three drivers to take the body to Pardhirsquos village no one cameldquoThese instances reflect lack of supervision of the medical superintendent and other hospital staff membersrdquo said Dr Bodade adding ldquoOver half a dozen hospital employees are likely to be suspended for being negligent in their work I have asked the contractor to remove the three driversmdashRavi Chowdhary Aatish Mukne and Rajesh GuravrdquoDr Marad defends decisionWhen midday contacted Dr Marad he said ldquoWe have six ambulances and have hired six drivers through an agency All the six drivers are deployed daily on the day shift and one at in on the night shift But in case of any emergency suppose the night driver is out to bring a patient and we need another ambulance we immediately call in another driverrdquoWhen asked about the absent roster he said ldquoThe roster is prepared by the drivers Both the night shift driver and the standby driver were out with patients The number of the third driver was not reachable The remaining three drivers were contacted by the hospital but they refused to come They have been removedrdquo Dr Marad told midday Talking about the showcause notice he said ldquoIrsquove learnt about the notice from you I have not been served any such notice till daterdquoOn asking the guard to arrange the ambulance he said ldquoI was informed about the childrsquos death by the security guard so naturally I will tell him to get an ambulance for them There was an emergency case of a woman who was bleeding profusely so the security guard informed me about the death and the medical officer Dr Ashok Nikam was present there when he called merdquo Paediatrician Dr Kaviraj Bhoye had attended to Ajay Talking about why the matron has been on medical leave repeatedly Dr Marad said ldquoShe is an old employee and has been taking leaves for medical reasons If I deny leave to any employee they can allege harassment So I have to grant them leaves if the requirement is genuinerdquolsquoI have no wordsrsquoldquoI have no words I donrsquot know what a showcause notice is I only know that I have lost my son and I had to carry his dead body on motorcycle in the bonechilling coldrdquo said Yuvraj Pardhi Ajayrsquos fatherJan 25Day the tribal child died