Patient’s body found on ground floor of hospital

Mumbai: The body of an asthma patient who was in the Intensive Care Unit of civic-run Bhabha Hospital in Bandra (west), which is situated on the eight floor of the hospital, was mysteriously found lying on the ground floor hours after he was admitted on Tuesday. The patient, Ravi Shankar (35) was brought to the hospital at 1 am. The incident has left the hospital’s administration red-faced, because security had been beefed up after the recent resident doctors strike.

Talking to The Asian Age, Chief medical Superintendent Dr Pradip Jadhav said, “The patient had tuberculosis and must have died due to it. The matter is being investigated. Even I am not aware about how his body reached the ground floor. I will get the details and get back to you. He was admitted in the ICU and we don’t know how he came down.”

Shoaib Khan, one of the people who was present when Shankar was admitted, said, “Shankar was brought at night and appeared uneasy and out of breath. After he reached the ICU, a nurse who was on night duty had told him that he should go to the ground floor and get himself registered with the police and a causality medical officer and he complied. In the morning, his corpse was seen lying on a bench on the ground floor.”

Sub-inspector Rohit Kalubarme of the Bandra Police station, who is investigating the matter, said, “We don’t have a clue about who the dead man is, but we were informed by the hospital about a dead body. We do not want to reveal any information related to this case.”

A source from Bhabha Hospital said,  “All everyone is passing the buck, since the patient himself was made to wander around by himself after being admitted in the ICU, and no one from the hospital like a nurse, ward boy or doctor on night duty bothered to check why he did not return.”