Student Death In NIT Durgapur Allegedly Due To Medical Negligence

Medical Unit-cum-Hospital at NIT Durgapur

Editor’s Note: A fourth year student of Electrical Engineering at NIT Durgapur, Prosenjit Sarkar, died on Wednesday night (18th November, 2015), on campus. Students of NIT Durgapur claim that his death was due to medical negligence. Below is a statement brought out by the Students’ Gymkhana of NIT Durgapur:

The unfortunate demise of Prosenjit Sarkar has brought to light the pitiable condition of college medical unit and its staff.

Prosenjit was feeling severe headache for the past two days. Being unable to complete his semester paper on Wednesday morning, he admitted himself to the medical unit (MU) of NIT Durgapur (which claims to have 24 hours medical service) at 2 PM where the Doctor didn’t arrive till 5 PM. The nurse on duty gave him sleeping and headache pills and three bottles of saline. After repeated pleas from his friends to keep him under medical observation due to his inability to walk properly, a doctor was summoned who gave him an injection for his vomiting problems and forcefully sent him back to his hostel with his friends at 8.30 PM.

After being in care under the medical unit for 6 hours, Prosenjit returned walking across the corridor to his room. Finding him unconscious on the floor fifteen minutes later at 9 PM, his friends waited 40 minutes with him on the portico of his hostel for an ambulance from the medical unit. He died on his way in a tempo to the medical unit. The doctor, thinking him to be alive, casually mentioned that his low pulse rate was nothing of serious concern and referred him to the Mission hospital at 9.30 PM. We are talking here about a doctor at the medical unit of NIT Durgapur who can’t proclaim whether a patient is dead or alive.

Upon arriving at the hospital at 10 PM, he was declared dead by the doctors who estimated his time of death one and a half hours before. The doctor of MU commented that he could not understand his condition.

This information is not just provided to all the students to share on Facebook and all other social media. This information is provided to urge the people to stand and let others know that there is still humanity alive among us. Things are very poor and will continue to be poor, if we just ignore these incidents. Incidents like these are quite common in NIT DURGAPUR, for the last few months.

People are actually dying, and worst of all people continue to ignore it.

Students Blame College

In a shocking incident, a 22-year-old fellow resident Prosenjit Sarkar, at one of India's premier National Institutes of Technology, Durgapur allegedly passed away due to the negligence of the college's Medical Unit. A student of the college, Anomitra Saha, reached out to PG Times and shared the events that unfortunately led to Prosenjit's premature death.

Saha writes,

"Dear Madam,

I am terribly ashamed and write to you in a state of utter despair, following the death of a 22 year old fellow student at the NIT Durgapur campus, last evening (18th November, 2015) due to the gross negligence and malpractices of the people at the Medical Unit responsible for the students and staff.

Prosenjit Sarkar, a Fourth year B.Tech student of Electrical Engineering approached the staff at the Medical Unit(MU) of the college several times last evening reporting unease and bad health. According to close friends of the deceased the doctors were unavailable despite the fact that the MU claims to have a doctor on call at all times. The deceased had been experiencing head ache and uneasiness for the past couple of days. Friends close to the deceased claim that the unqualified staff at the MU refused to keep him admitted despite visible weakness and poor health. The MU staff is said to have administered medicine, including an injection in consultation with a physician merely over telephone who asked the medicine to be administered without a physical or visual examination of the person.

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As witnessed by friends, Prosenjit feebly managed to walk back to his hostel residence and was found unconscious only about 15 minutes later at about 8.45. The hostel residents frantically telephoned the MU to send an ambulance which is supposed to be made available for emergencies at all hours. When the MU said that the ambulance was unavailable, the students requested a doctor to be sent immediately to check the patient and finally frantically arranged for an auto rickshaw for the patient to be rushed to the Medical Unit. This time the Physician happened to be present at the MU, and he immediately conceded that his condition seemed severe although he was unable to assess his ailment. and referred him to Mission Hospital which is at least 20 minutes away on road, where he was declared dead with the time of death having estimated to be one and a half hour before.

When the students along with the Chief warden and the Dean(Student Welfare) approached the Director's Bungalow to discuss the chain of events and to seek answers, the Director summarily refused to speak to the students. Eventually, more than 150 riot police and RAF were called to disperse the crowd.

With great expectation and humble request I write to you on behalf of all the students of this institute to investigate into the matter and establish the correct version of events and bring to light the inadequacy of an Institute of National Importance to provide it's resident scholars from all over India with basic amenities (health or otherwise) to lead a healthy, respectable and functional life."

The students of NIT Durgapur have urged for necessary actions against the college management and the staff at the Medical Unit.