A 10-year-old boy died on Saturday morning at SN Medical College in Agra, just hours after a portion of the ceiling plaster fell on him in the emergency pediatric ward on Friday afternoon. The hospital administration stated that the child succumbed to severe pneumonia and seizures, asserting that the injuries from the incident did not contribute to his death.
This incident has raised concerns regarding safety standards in hospital facilities, particularly in areas designated for vulnerable patients such as children.
SN Medical College principal Dr Prashant Gupta said Umer, a resident of Aligarh, had suffered seizures since he was about five months old and was diagnosed with West syndrome at AIIMS, Delhi, around 11 months of age. Eyewitnesses told TOI that Umer suffered bruises around 2pm on Friday when a roughly one-foot-wide portion of plaster fell from the ceiling of the emergency paediatric ward, where about 15 children were admitted.
“Umer was admitted to the emergency department at 9.37pm on Wednesday with four days of fever and worsening breathing difficulty,” he said, adding that the child also had long-standing developmental delay and was found to be anaemic. Umer’s father, Aamir Khan, told TOI , “My wife was present with our son when the incident occurred. Police sources said the family took the body to their native village in Aligarh without a postmortem.
The ward was evacuated and the children were shifted by ambulance to the paediatric department behind the emergency block. We heard a sound when the plaster fell from the ceiling and alerted the administration, following which the children were shifted. Following the incident, local Samajwadi Party leader and social worker Bal Yogi protested against the administration and demanded a structural audit of SN Medical College buildings.
He had been shifted to that bed nearly four hours earlier.