AGRA: A senior doctor at Agra's SN Medical College has been caught on tape allegedly telling his junior colleague, who refused to admit a TB patient dying of a bleeding stomach ulcer, that he could "kill the man, make it so difficult that he leaves on his own, but just admit him". The patient, 18-year-old Mukesh Prajapati, died shortly afterwards. The entire exchange was recorded on his phone by his father Teekam Prajapati. District authorities and senior health department officials said they would examine the allegations and the recording.
"At around 10 pm on Friday, I took my son, who was suffering from TB, to the hospital after he complained of a stomach ache. Doctors at the medicine ward were just not willing to listen to us. We noticed the phone number of the head of the surgery department (Dr Swetank Prakash) listed on the wall and I called him up from Mukesh's phone. I made the head talk to his junior colleague who was standing with us. Mukesh was then admitted to the emergency ward," the teenager's father told TOI on Monday.
Hours later, Mukesh was dead. What the doctors did not know, however, was that his father had recorded their conversation (TOI has a copy of the audio clip). After Mukesh died, his family listened to the recording and were shocked by the exchange.
Prakash is heard instructing the junior doctor (Abhishek): "Admit zaroor kar lo, surgery me ya medicine me; maar daalo usse; blood likh do, apne aap bhaag jayega (Make sure you admit him, either in the medicine or surgery department, kill him, prescribe him units of blood, he will run away on his own)." As the call was made late at night, there would have been no way the patient's family could arrange blood for a transfusion. They would perforce have to go to another hospital if getting blood was made a condition for admitting the patient.
The doctor is also heard calling the patient's relatives names for calling him up at night.
Mukesh's family later lodged a police complaint at the MM Gate police station against the senior doctor and submitted a non-cognisable report (NCR) at the station on Saturday night.
"We want action against the doctor for negligence," said Teekam, alleging that doctors had also caused Mukesh's death by injecting him with the wrong medicine. Teekam has a small snack stall in Khandari area of the city.
Asked about the audio clip, Prakash told TOI: "The clip has been edited and doctored. I have not said all that. I instructed the junior doctors to provide immediate relief to the patient. He was a TB patient, not a surgery patient, but I asked the doctors to help him without caring about such things. This is an attempt to malign my image, but my fellow colleagues support me and I will continue with my service."
When contacted, SNMC principal Dr Saroj Singh said she was out of the city and not aware about the matter. "I can only comment on the incident after I find out the details. I will set up an enquiry into the matter," she added.
SP (city) Sushil Ghule said, "We have written a letter to the college authorities. We will initiate action after we get a report from the medical board concerning the incident."
Agra chief medical officer BS Yadav, meanwhile, said that the matter was related to SNMC and he did not want to comment on it.
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