A one-and-half-year-old died of burn injuries at a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh as it didn't have a ventilator and the doctor allegedly asked her parents to arrange one on their own. A cellphone video shows the doctor telling the family that the Burns ward doesn't have a ventilator.
After the video went viral, Dr Jyoti Raut was suspended for negligence, a government spokesperson said.
Devendra Ahirwar, Anshika's father, told reporters that she fell into a pot of boiling water on Friday morning. She was taken to Bundelkhand Medical College where the doctors said she had suffered 70 per cent burn injuries.
Her condition began to deteriorate in the afternoon, he said, alleging that no doctor was present in the ward then.
Dr Raut came to the ward after some time and told him that the child needed to be put on a ventilator, but the Burns Department did not have one, Mr Ahirwar said.
When the family insisted that a ventilator should be arranged somehow, the doctor allegedly asked them to get one themselves, saying "it costs Rs. 1 crore".
The girl died in the evening.
The alleged conversation was captured by someone on a mobile phone and circulated on the social media.
Dr GS Patel, the dean at the college, said that a ventilator was available in the ICU where the patient could have been shifted.
"I was out of town. I am not aware of what transpired between the patient's family and the doctor. We are conducting an inquiy," he said.
