Govt hospitals to strike today after kin beat up doctor

Relatives blame doctors at Sion hospital for not admitting 10monthold in time upset residents cancelled 20 surgeries public hospitals threaten to go on strike today In the wee hours of Thursday yet another incident of violence against doctors occurred at civicrun Sion hospital after a 10monthold Sajiya Shaikh died in the hospital allegedly due to negligence on the part of resident doctorsu00a0Aggrieved by the delayed treatment of the infant four of her relatives allegedly thrashed resident Dr Vishnu Dhadwad Dr Vishnu Dhadwad suffered a fracture in his right arm after the incident Farhid the deceased childs father alleges that the doctors at Sion Hospital did not admit Sajiyau00a0in timeUpset with the incident Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors MARD of Sion hospital called a strike cancelling 20 major surgeries in the hospital The four accused Kurshid Sheikh 35 Shabnam Sheikh 22 Sadam Siddique 18 and Mehtab Siddique 20 all residents of Dharavi are currently under judicial custodyu00a0Sion hospital has a total of 500 resident doctors who refused to work after the incident With the support of doctors from other civic and governmentrun hospitals the doctors have threatened to go on a strike today as wellDr Nirmala Barse assistant dean of Sion hospital said We could perform only eight planned surgeries and two emergencies in the day All our 366 senior doctors were present to handle the hospital in the absence of resident doctorsSajiyas father Farhid Ahmed has alleged that doctors did not admit his daughter in time We had taken her on September 3 to Sion hospital as she had diarrhoea We told the doctor to admit her but he said its not needed and asked us to buy ORS powder and make her drink that Next day Sajiyas condition did not improve and we went to the hospitalu00a0 But doctors did not admit her My mother Bakhridinisa begged the doctor to treat her but he said that we should go to a private hospital Next day we took her to a private hospital where doctors told us to take her to Sion hospital as she was serious That is when they admitted her said Noorbanu paternal aunt of SajiyaAccording to relatives Sajiya had cough and cold along with diarrhoea when she was admitted in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit PICU On September 6 she was shifted to the general ward after her condition improved But the same day she suffered a convulsion followed by a cardiac arrest Doctors successfully resuscitated herThey transferred her to the PICU again where she suffered another cardiac arrest and even after resuscitation she could not be revived said a senior doctor from Sion hospitalThe incidentAfter doctors declared Sajiyas dead around 1 am on Thursday her parents and grandmother were weeping in the PICU Sajiyas close relatives went to ward number 2122 to collect Sajiyas items where they spotted Dr Vishnu Dhadwadu00a0He first hit Shabnam Sheikh childs aunt and thus the four hit him back alleged NoorbanuBut Dr Vishnu who has polio in his right leg said The relatives came suddenly and started hitting me I did not even know why they were doing it I had just seen their child once and she was suffering from diarrhea then She had no signs of pneumonia when she first arrived Doctors said Dr Vishnu has suffered a right hand fracture and multiple bruisesu00a0 Khwaja Husain another kin of Sajiya alleged that the doctors were insisting that Sajiyas parents undergo an HIV test We just could not understand why they were worried about the parents when the child was ill alleged HusainThe Sion police arrested the four two of them women for attacking the doctor on duty at Sion hospital and breaking windowpanes yesterday around 115 amu00a0Based on the complaint filed by the victim Doctor Dhadwad the four were arrested in the morning said SI Dilip PatilHospitals takeDean Dr Sandhya Kamat said We want the police to take a complaint for a noncognisable offence against the relatives as it is shameful to hit doctorsMARD President for Sion hospital Dr Yogesh Pawar said This is the sixth such incident in the last seven months we will not tolerate such acts against doctors We want more security in the hospital We want the relatives to be booked under the Doctors Protection Act