A sitting MLA of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is still waiting for a FIR to be registered against a private hospital in the state capital Lucknow for medical negligence more than a month after his son died of Covid-19.
Rajkumar Agarwal, a legislator from Hardoi’s Sandila Assembly constituency, said he wrote to the Kakori police station on April 26 seeking action against the hospital’s negligence, which he blamed for his 36-year-old son’s death.
While the police said they have forwarded his complaint to Sanjay Bhatnagar, Lucknow’s Chief Medical Officer, for further action, the Chief Minister’s Office said an investigation into the incident is already underway.
The hospital, meanwhile, has dismissed the allegation. “I had sent the letter to the DGP office as well as other senior officials. I mentioned that my son died due to medical negligence. The hospital had run out of oxygen resulting in my son’s death. We had arranged oxygen from another source but the hospital authorities did not let us use it,” the MLA said.
On April 22, his son Ashish Agarwal was admitted to the Atharv Multispeciality Hospital and Research Centre on IIM Road in the Kakori police station area of Lucknow, where he died around 1 p.m. on April 26.
Dr. Sandeep Kumar Gupta, the hospital’s director, said Ashish died of cardio respiratory failure after contracting pneumonia in both lungs.
“There was heavy damage to his lungs and his oxygen count had fallen. We tried our best but could not save him. We told the family that they could take him elsewhere, after his health deteriorated. But they refused and asked us to give him further treatment. There was no chance of medical negligence. He was being looked after by our best doctors and a senior doctor was also overseeing his case,” Gupta said Saturday.
