43-year-old Anjali Bairagi was admitted to Dr Vasantrao Pawar Medical College after she consumed poison
The family of a 43-year-old woman, who died at a private hospital in Maharashtra's Nashik on Sunday, has alleged negligence by the hospital staff and claim they found a live cockroach in the ventilator pipe that was connected to the patient. Anjali Bairagi was admitted to the hospital after she had consumed poison on April 17. She died during treatment on April 22. "After my mother's death, we found a cockroach in the ventilator tubing. This is nothing but negligence on the part of the hospital. We are waiting for the postmortem report, which will reveal the cause of her death," said Ms Bairagi's son, Dhiraj, according to news agency PTI.
Ms Bairagi's family has said that they want stern action to be taken against Dr Vasantrao Pawar Medical College, located in Nashik's Adgaon area. The hospital is run by an education society, the Maratha Vidya Prasarak Samaj.
The hospital has denied the allegations, saying it was "impossible" for a cockroach to have remained alive inside the ventilator.
"When the hospital staff put her on ventilator support, a new filter-tubing had been placed then," the hospital's superintendent Dr Ajit Patil told PTI.
While not denying the relatives' allegation of finding a cockroach inside the ventilator, Dr Patil said that they had only found it after Ms Bairagi's death.
"The cockroach was spotted in the ventilator by her relatives nearly an hour after it was switched off," he said.
The official said that the woman's ventilator was shut after her death at 9.30 pm.
Ms Bairagi's body was later sent for a postmortem to Nashik Civil Hospital.
Her family carried out her cremation afterwards. It was unclear why Ms Bairagi had consumed poison.
(With Inputs From PTI)