'Sassoon docs put my niece in danger'

Man says body of ayurvedic doctor, who died of swine flu yesterday, was kept next to his 13-yr-old niece who died in the wee hours of this morning for over 5 hours

Shekhar Kamte, uncle of the 13-year-old girl who died in the Sassoon Hospital in the wee hours of this morning today, has alleged that doctors had kept the body of the ayurvedic doctoru00a0who died yesterday next to her bed for nearly five hours, thereby endangering her.

The death of Shruti Gawade, a student of Ahilyadevi School, takes the death toll across the country to eight.

"Doctors' carelessness has put the life of my 13-year-old niece at serious risk. They kept the body of Babasaheb Mane, who had died at 7 am yesterday, next to my niece's bed till 12.15 pm. This is a grave lapse on the part of the doctors." said Kampte yesterday evening.

The girl who had a cold, cough and high fever was first admitted to KEM hospital and later transferred to Sassoon Hospital on Friday. "My neice was initially put on ventilator," he said.

'Nothing to worry'
The dean of Sassoon Hospital, Arun Jamkhar, said, "I cannot comment on this issue."

But former president of Indian Medical Association Dr Avinash Bondwe is confident that there was no harm done.

"Keeping a body close to the patient is not an advisable thing. But there are not much chances of the H1N1 virus spreading to others from it.

"This is because the transmission of the virus is through droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. "In this case there is no such chances, hence there is no need to panic."