Three days after a 41-year-old man died in a lift accident at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a man who had complained of chest pain died at the state-run hospital allegedly after being denied a stretcher.
According to the family of the deceased, Biswajit Samanta, a resident of Nimta in North 24 Parganas district, was admitted to the trauma care unit early on Monday morning. When he needed to use the toilet, doctors allegedly directed him to use a public toilet located about 100 m away, as there was no toilet nearby.
The family alleged that Samanta was not provided with a stretcher and was forced to walk the distance, despite complaining of chest pain.
According to the family, the ordeal did not end there. After walking the distance, the patient allegedly had to climb to the second floor. However, before reaching the toilet, he collapsed and lost consciousness and was allegedly bleeding from the nose. He was then taken to the emergency ward, where doctors declared him dead.
The family alleged that despite repeated requests, no hospital staff assisted them while they took Samanta him to the emergency ward.
Patient Welfare Association chairman Atin Ghosh termed the incident “unusual” and doubted the claim that there was no bathroom in the trauma care unit. He also questioned how the patient was asked to go out and said the matter would be discussed in a meeting on Monday.
Reacting to the incident, BJP former state president Dilip Ghosh said, “Hospitals like RG Kar in West Bengal have become death traps. Mamata Banerjee was the health minister for so long—what has she done? She lacks competence. It is time for change.”
Meanwhile, a PIL petition was filed in the Calcutta High Court in connection with the death of Arup Banerjee owing to an alleged lift malfunction at the hospital on March 20.
The petition demands the investigation be transferred from the Tala police station to the Central Bureau of Investigation, production and preservation of CCTV footage of the incident, payment of adequate compensation to Banerjee’s family, and directions for the immediate implementation of the National Task Force’s recommendations.
Banerjee got stuck inside the lift, which then descended to a dark basement with a locked outer iron grill. While he managed to push his wife and child to safety, the lift suddenly moved upward, dragging him against a cement wall.