Life lost for a bed and a little blood

KOLKATA: A few bottles of blood could have saved Susmita Biswas, who died at the SSKM Hospital on Friday evening waiting for a bed.
State health department authorities on Saturday admitted to the lapses that caused the death of 20-year-old Susmita, but that would bring little solace to her parents who saw her dying while they pleaded to doctors to give her blood.
A three-member inquiry committee led by Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research director Basudeb Banerjee will probe the death. Family members have lodged a complaint with the Bhowanipore police station.
Director of medical education C.R. Maity called it a procedural lapse. "There was negligence in getting the girl admitted. Hospitals have been instructed first to admit critical patients and then start with the diagnosis. Unfortunately, this is not being followed," said Maity. Group-D staffer Santosh Sahu, who had allegedly removed the oxygen cylinder, has been issued a showcause notice. Maity added that it was the responsibility of hospital superintendent D.D. Chattopadhyay to look after patients'' requirements.
The outdoor ticket issued to Susmita on Friday revealed that between 1.40 pm and 5.35 pm – when she expired – a bed could not be arranged for her at the hospital. Attending doctors had repeatedly said no bed was available. At 4.15 pm, the doctors wrote: "Patient restless, surgeon superintendent consulted repeatedly. No female bed vacant anywhere."
The hospital had also tried to shift the patient elsewhere. The girl was taken to the hospital after an assurance from an accounts department staffer there that she would get a bed. Susmita''s father Samir Biswas alleged that the hospital superintendent had asked him to take the patient elsewhere. "It was the attending doctor who informed the superintendent that she was not in a state to be shifted elsewhere. After that we learnt she had been admitted," said Samir. At 5.15 pm the superintendent gave orders to arrange for a bed in the medicine ward.
"I pleaded with the doctors to give her blood. They said it was against the rules. If three units of blood were given to her she would have lived," said mother Kajal. Chattopadhyay said a thorough probe would be conducted against doctors Gobindo Mandal and Debashish Roy. "I will recommend action against the two doctors at the emergency ward on Monday," said Chattopadhyay.
Maity said the inquiry committee would submit a preliminary report on Monday when he visits SSKM Hospital to check documents. At Biswas'' residence in Baguiati, relatives and neighbours thronged. "I cannot believe she is not there. Just the day before she had asked me to get her some more tuitions," said her former tutor Probir K. Mullick.
Health minister Surjya Kant Mishra took time off his schedule on Saturday to visit Shabana''s mother Naseema Begum at the Howrah state general hospital and had her health checked. "She seems to be improving," he said. "I have asked the hospital authorities to submit a report why an ambulance was not provided."