Kolkata Medical College and Hospital has formed a four-member committee to investigate the death of an 11-year-old boy after his family alleged medical negligence at the state-run hospital, a senior official said on Monday.
The boy, identified as Pawan Yadav of Andul in Howrah, was brought to the hospital on Sunday morning with abdominal pain and admitted to the Mother and Child Hub, the official said. According to the family, he died within one-and-a-half hours of being admitted and his condition worsened after he was given an injection.
The committee is headed by Professor Rakesh Mondal of the Paediatrics Department. Its other members are Sujoy Maitra, head of the Paediatric Surgery Department, Imran Ahmed of Cardiology and Sanjay Mondal of Medicine.
The hospital has directed the committee to examine the case in detail and submit its findings at the earliest. The senior official said the facts would be established after the medical records and treatment details were reviewed.
The circumstances surrounding the injection and the boy’s subsequent deterioration are among the issues that the inquiry is expected to examine. Some junior doctors said the symptoms could have warranted an intramuscular Rantac IM injection. However, some doctors claimed that the child went into shock after receiving the injection and subsequently suffered a cardiac arrest.
The account of the treatment and the sequence of events have not yet been conclusively established. The hospital’s committee is expected to review the medical records and treatment details before determining what happened.
The incident led to tension on the hospital premises on Sunday afternoon, when the boy’s relatives protested over the alleged negligence. The family’s allegations remain subject to the committee’s findings, and no conclusion on responsibility has been announced by the hospital.
Kolkata Medical College and Hospital has not disclosed a timeline beyond asking the committee to submit its report as soon as possible. The next formal step is the submission of the panel’s findings after its review of the case records.
