Mumbai: Relatives of a patient entered the Emergency ward of the King Edward Memorial Hospital and started abusing the resident doctor after they were informed that the patient had died. Taking the act into consideration, the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has demanded strict action against the relatives.
The incident occurred on September 8, when a 18-year-old patient named Jatin Pawar, was admitted to the KEM hospital after he was suspected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARI) and was admitted to the emergency ward under MVS unit.
According to the doctors, the patient had a history of fever and breathlessness since the last three days following which he was admitted in a private hospital and later was shifted to KEM in view of three episodes of Generalised tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS).
“When the patient was admitted on September 7 we examined his health parameters which showed saturation was 80% on 15 litres O2, Blood pressure - 120/80 mm of hg, altered sensorium. Following which the patient was intubated and put on a ventilator, post-intubation BP crashed, was started on support and was sedated,” said a senior doctor.
He further said that the patient was tested COVID negative, but his health condition did not improve and the patient was found with no recordable peripheral pulses in spite of being on supports.
On September 8, the relatives were explained about the patient's health condition at 11.30 pm by the senior medical officer (SMO) and later the patient was found with no recordable carotid pulses despite they administered him with injection atropine and adrenaline, moreover CPR was also initiated but ECG remained flat.
“We informed the patient’s brother and maternal uncle that his brother had died and explained to them in detail to which they agreed and said at least we tried to save him. But when I went out for some work the other relatives of the patient created chaos and started arguing and abusing the resident doctor who was on duty,” said the doctor.
"The relatives who were counseled and the relatives who were creating problems were not the same. They refused to listen and started yelling on top of their voices, drowning our voices. They got violent and difficult to handle so doctors went out and waited for them to calm down, they had lost a young boy, so they acted out," he added.
The incident came to limelight after a video of relatives shouting and using abusive words for the resident doctor who was on duty went viral on social media on September 11.
In a video, the crowd were saying that the patient is not dead, his body is warm, they can see his heartbeat. The casualty officer explained that it’s not true, if they wish he can take an ECG again. They said they will kill resident doctors and send his body along with the deceased to the mortuary. They threatened the doctor to connect the ventilator and by force, he was made to.
“After connecting the ventilator they mistook the ventilator waveforms as the heartbeat and the movements of the chest due to forceful ventilation by the ventilator as spontaneous breaths. I tried to explain but they would not. They kept on saying mean things and cheap words,I felt it was best to let them calm down,” said the doctor.
Several ECGs were taken when the patient was still on a ventilator and they were all flat lines, but they did not understand and argued. Later the senior doctor explained the complete procedure they had done to save the patients. Moreover, they were counselled for post-mortem for which they agreed and decided to donate organs.
