4-year-old dies of ‘Covid’, kin cry negligence

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 12

The death of a four-year-old boy allegedly due to Covid sparked protests at Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu, on Saturday, with the family alleging that the child died because of negligence by the hospital staff.

The deceased was identified as Aarav Kumar, son of Subhash Chander, a resident of Janipur, Jammu.

According to the family, the boy fell from his house on Friday evening and he was first shifted to Government Hospital, Sarwal, from where he was shifted to the Government Medical College, Jammu. The boy had head injury.

They argued that the hospital authorities deliberately turned the child Covid positive to hide their negligence.

“The child died due to the negligence of doctors. He was not provided proper medical treatment. In critical condition, he was not provided ventilator and later shifted to an isolation ward on the ground that he was Covid positive. Why did the authorities not conduct Covid test at the initial hours of treatment?” the family members alleged.

Raising slogans against the hospital administration, they claimed that the second Covid test of the boy was found to be negative. “It is not clear what is being done in the garb of Covid ”, they alleged and said, “The hospital authorities shifted the body of the boy from the hospital to a graveyard for the last rites without informing them”.

Sensing trouble, senior officers of the district administration rushed to the hospital and assured the family of in-depth inquiry into the incident.

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