Ernakulam Government Medical College turns back on child with burns

KOCHI: Close on the heels of the death of MBBS student Shamna Tasnim after alleged negligence for over twenty minutes in taking her to the ICU, Ernakulam Government Medical College on Sunday night turned down to admit a one and a half years old girl child with burn injuries. The cited reason: Lack of personnel to man the burns unit at the hospital.

“We reached there with the child after hearing that they have a special burns unit. First, we rushed the child to the LF Hospital, Angamaly, where the first aid was given, and they asked us to take to a specialist hospital. After we had reached there around 10 pm, we had to wait for two and a half hours, and none turned up," said M. P. Chandrasekharan Nair, grandfather of the child Athulya, daughter of Pratheesh and Smitha of Athani near Angamaly.

“Later when we asked the doctor on duty, he said there was a shortage of nursing staff, and hence the burns unit was being closed down. We were told by some people there that some of the nursing staff there were not willing to do night duty, and the functioning of the hospital was getting affected at night. Then we had to return without getting treatment and had to look for alternatives in the midnight.” The nursing superintendent of EMC said that the burns unit was closed for the past five days as there were no patients.

“The medical officer in charge should have deployed nurses from some other ward for taking care of the child or should have taken it to the surgical unit. By the time I came to know about it, the patient had already left. There is a shortage of nursing staff, and the said incident could have been avoided if there was a nursing supervisor,” said the official. EMC medical superintendent Dr Anil Kumar said a probe would be conducted into the incident on Tuesday.