A Class X student, Arijit Das (15), passed away while being transferred from Burdwan to Kolkata in an ambulance on Friday. Kolkata police has arrested an air condition mechanic, who was posing as a doctor and the ambulance driver in connection with the death of the student.
Arijit fell ill after he appeared for his board examination on Wednesday. In the police complaint, his father Ranjit Das (46) alleged that when his son was being transferred from one hospital to other, a mechanic disguising as a doctor failed to operate the life support system in the ambulance.
Police said the man had placed an oxygen mask on Arijit’s mouth, assured that it was enough to sustain him over the 100-km journey from Burdwan to Kolkata.
Meanwhile, the quack, identified as Sanjay Biswas had admitted to the police that he is not a doctor but an AC mechanic and faked as doctor on the private nursing home’s insistence.
Das admitted his son at the state-run Nalhati hospital on Thursday after Arijit complained of high fever and back pain. After no signs of recovery, he was shifted to Annapurna Nursing Home in Burdwan. At night, the nursing home said the boy needed to be treated in Kolkata.
The family reportedly paid a purported representative of the nursing home Rs 8,000 for the ambulance and another Rs 8,000 as fee for the “doctor” who would accompany the patient on the ambulance.
Revealing further details about the two accused, a police officer said:
“At that time, the authority of Annapurna Nursing Home allegedly arranged for an ICCU Ambulance (WB 41G/9587) along with a fake doctor namely Sarfarajuddin (25), resident of Memari under East Burdwan, and forced to shift the patient from Burdwan to Kolkata. The ambulance driver has been identified as Tara Babu Sha (26 ).”
However, when the family reached the private hospital in Kolkata, the doctors declared the 15-year-old brought dead.
During the journey, none of the relatives were allowed to be by the patient’s side in the ambulance.
“The family was told that a doctor of this stature does not allow relatives to travel in the same ambulance,” an officer told The Telegraph.
It was after reaching the hospital that the family grew suspicious.
“I asked the ‘doctor’ in the ambulance his name and registration number so I could check his details on the Net. He fumbled and said, ‘Sanjay Biswas’. But when I grilled him about Arijit’s medical condition, he said he was a ‘technical person’. After five minutes, he said he was an AC mechanic,” Victim’s uncle told the daily.
The ambulance was caught by the hospital authority as it was about to flee.
