Man with stab injury left untreated at Bowring Hospital for four days

Condition critical as his abdomen goes gangrenous

In a suspected case of serious medical negligence, a 31-year-old man from Nepal who had severe stab wounds piercing from the lungs to the abdominal area was kept waiting for treatment for four days at the state-run Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital here.

Raju Nepali nearly lost his life because of delay in treatment. He recounted to Deccan Herald how a robber stabbed him when he was returning home from work around 12.30 am on December 2. He works at a mall near Trinity Circle, off MG Road. He was rushed to a private hospital. But since he could not afford the expensive medical care, he chose to get treated at a government hospital.

He claimed that from December 3 midnight to December 7, the hospital kept him waiting for treatment. When his condition worsened, he was shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD).

Doctors treating him at present said that he had had a Thoracoabdominal injury.
However, while Nepali was refered from the private hospital to the Bowring
Hospital and thence to the RGICD, none of them made a mention of this. Possibly, the depth of the wound was not considered and the wounds were sutured from outside.

“At the Bowring Hospital, I was given glucose and some medication and asked to wait. My condition grew worse by December 7. The pain was excruciating and my stomach started bloating. It was then that the doctors there refered me to another hospital,” he said.

Speaking about the case, Dr Shashidhar Buggi, director, RGICD, said the injury was severe and the patient was brought to the hospital in a critical condition. “The stab was through his tenth rib cage, through the lungs and then diaphragm. As it was untreated for long, there was gangrene formation in the abdominal area. Immediate medical intervention was necessary,” he stressed.

Sources in the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, however, said the hospital lacked the facility to treat patients with such thoracic injuries. Deccan Herald’s attempts to reach the hospital authorities for comment were not successful. While the medical superintendent was not in town, the Resident Medical Officer was not reachable.