Man dies within hours of being declared fit by Pune hospital

Pune: A 40-year-old man who was declared fit and discharged from Sassoon General Hospital died within a few hours at the Pune railway station.

Madhav Jadhav, the deceased, was at the railway station to go to his hometown Kolkata because the chest and stomach pain he had complained of, was not going away even after his visit to the hospital.

The case records of the hospital show Jadhav's pulse was feeble, which experts say should have been a cause of concern for doctors.

His relatives claim it was a case of gross medical negligence on the part of the hospital. Jadhav was rushed to Sassoon after he complained of pain in the chest and stomach. He was discharged by doctors after he was given initial treatment and prescribed a few medicines.

According to hospital case records, the patient came to the emergency section after 2 p.m. on Sunday. He was checked by doctors at the casualty section and referred to the medicine department.

"We took him to Sassoon hospital just after he complained of pain. The doctors there made us run from one department to another and did a sonography, besides some other tests," said his roommate, Sanjoy Biswas. "They said that there wasn't anything majorly wrong and wrote the medicine for him and asked us to go," he added.

According to Jadhav's maternal uncle, Kanhai Majumdar, the pain did not subside and the patient wanted to go to his hometown for treatment.

"We went to the railway station and took a ticket for Kolkata. I was to go with him and a couple of people had come to drop us. We were waiting on the platform and he was lying down," he said. "When we wanted to wake him up, he didn't get up and we realised something was wrong."

The group then carried Jadhav to an autorickshaw and brought him back to the casualty section at Sassoon, where he was declared dead on arrival. It had not been five hours since his discharge from the hospital, said Biswas.

For Jadhav's relatives, his death remains a mystery as hospital authorities have not told them what was the exact cause of his death.

Jadhav's relatives and friends alleged negligence by hospital authorities to have led to his death.

"We had come to Sassoon in the afternoon where was checked by the doctors. We have the papers to prove it and at that time they said he was fit to go and didn't get him admitted," Biswas said.

"If that is the case, then how did someone who was fit to be discharged die within five hours at the railway station? This means that they were careless the first time and let him go while they could have saved his life." he said.

Acting Sassoon Dean Dr S V Ghorpade could not give any details of the case despite repeated attempts
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"Please take the reason for death from the deadhouse authorities. We cannot tell you that," he said when asked about the sudden death.

Medical Superintendent, Dr P. S. Pawar, too, could not give clear details. "I have the case papers and can see that he was referred to the medicine department. But what happened after that I will take some time to find out; it is not traceable," he said.

Head of Forensic Department, Dr S. B. Punpale, said that he could not comment on what caused the death of the patient. "We have reserved the viscera for histopathology examination and will wait for the results," he said.

President of Indian Medical Association, Dr Sharad Agharkhedkar, said that the least the hospital should have done was admit Jadhav.

"If his pulse was weak and he had a history of pain on the right side of the abdomen and distention, then he should have been referred to the surgical team rather than the medicine department. The man could have been suffering from a perforated appendix, which can also kill a man if neglected," he said.

"He should have been given IV fluids and antibiotics. If he didn't stabilise, then he should have been oxygen. If he died within a few hours, it definitely meant that he came in a state requiring hospitalisation."