Patna: A nine-year-old boy met a cruel end at a government hospital in Bihar after being fitted with an empty oxygen cylinder allegedly because his family refused to pay a Rs100 bribe.
The incident took place at Patna Medical College and Hospital late on Wednesday night but was reported to the police only on Friday.
As per the reports, Rausha Kumar had a blood infection and was admitted to the children’s emergency ward in PMCH on Tuesday when his condition deteriorated.
The attending doctors prescribed him regular oxygen intake and he was subsequently fitted with an oxygen cylinder.
The next day, his parents approached the hospital staff to get them to replace the almost-empty cylinder. However, the pharmacy in-charge, Subhash Prasad, allegedly demanded Rs100 (Dh6) from his parents to have the cylinder replaced. After the family said they could not pay the bribe, the miffed employee fitted the boy with an empty oxygen cylinder. He died soon after due to suffocation.
“We requested the hospital staff with folded hands to replace the cylinder soon when the oxygen was about to end but he kept on demanding Rs100 from us. When we explained our financial condition [and inability to] pay the money, he later fitted the empty cylinder. Sometime later, [our son] died of suffocation,” the boy’s father Surendra Sao said. Sao later registered a police case against the hospital staff.
“The guilty will not be spared at any cost. This is really serious if the matter is related to a bribe,” the local senior superintendent of police, Patna, Manu Maharaj told the media on Friday. However, the accused has been on the run after the incident.
Meanwhile, the hospital administration is now looking into the allegations. “We have ordered an inquiry into the incident and the accused will be taken to task if found guilty during the probe,” the hospital superintendent Lakhindra Prasad said. He also expressed concern over the bribe allegations against the employee.
“We have no information about this but if the hospital staff are seeking money in lieu of supplying filled oxygen cylinders, this is very serious. We already have slogans written on the hospital walls in bold lettering urging the patients’ [family] not to give money to any staff,” Prasad added.
The development comes amid a campaign by parliamentarian Pappy Yadav to “tame” doctors who charge poor villagers huge consultation fees in lieu of other tests. Yadav launched the campaign in his Madhepura Lok Sabha constituency, triggering stiff protests from doctors.
Undeterred by protests, Yadav had been raiding the clinics of “erring” doctors allegedly found involved in unethical activities and also announced he would launch a “people’s court” to try medical professionals.
