Boy dies at Vani Vilas Hospital

A seven-year-old boy, who was admitted to Vani Vilas Hospital with high fever and severe loose motion, died during treatment on Saturday.

The parents of Alex Raju, who was taken to the hospital in a serious condition on March 24, have blamed doctors’negligence for their son’s death.

The boy’s mother Amu said they had earlier taken Raju to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health Hospital. “Doctors there gave us medicines and said he will be fine in a few days. However, when his condition did not improve, we brought him to Vani Vilas. But his condition worsened.”

“Our son became very weak and lost consciousness on the third day of his admission. He couldn’t even recognise us many times,” father Guru Raj said.

The parents said doctors had asked them to get many tests done on Raju, but never showed them the reports. “They kept telling us our son was fine,” they said.
Dr Gangadhar Belavadi, paediatrician, however, told Deccan Herald that the child was admitted to the hospital with encephalitis. “When the child was brought to us, he had high fever and loose motion and was not able to recognise anybody. He also suffered from jaundice and gastrointestinal bleeding. We ran some tests and confirmed encephalitis and immediately informed his parents,” he said. Recovery in such cases was rare, he added.

Raju’s parents have a lodged a complaint against the hospital at the Victoria Hospital police outpost.