A female teacher of the Dhaka Commerce College died after delivery, allegedly due to wrong treatment in Dr Azmal Hospital in Mirpur on Saturday, triggering violent protests by her students.
The deceased, Trishna Ganguli, 32, was an assistant professor of the college’s Bangla department.
The management of the Dr Azmal Hospital said that Trisha was admitted with labour pains to the hospital at about 5:00am on Saturday under the supervision of gynaecologist Ferdousi Begum
Ruby, and had to undergo surgery.
Trisha gave birth to a baby girl in the hospital at around 8:00am, after which her condition started deteriorating, the hospital’s executive SK Babu told New Age.
As there was no intensive care unit in Dr Azmal Hospital, Trishna was immediately moved to the Asian Cardiac and General Hospital in Lalmatia where she died at about 11:30am.
Dr Ishtiaque of the Asian Cardiac Hospital suspected that excessive application of anaesthesia might have cause Tishna’s death.
When her body was taken to the Dhaka Commerce College, students burst into indignation when they came to know that their teacher had died due to wrong treatment.
Several hundred students of the college ransacked, vandalised and allegedly looted Dr Azmal Hospital.
At least five persons were injured and at least 20 vehicles were damaged at several places after Tishna’s death.
After vandalising eight to ten vehicles on the road adjacent to the Dhaka Zoo, the agitators brought out a procession and marched to Dr Azmal Hospital in Mirpur-6.
Vehicular movement was impossible due to the students’ agitation for nearly an hour, said the police.
The furious students, using iron rods, sticks and sharp weapons, ransacked the ground-floor of the nine-storey hospital building, and as a result panic gripped the other patients.
Several valuable machines, along with the pharmacy, doctors’ chambers and other rooms, were vandalised by the students, said the hospital’s management.
The Mirpur police, on receiving information, confronted the agitators and detained 13 from the spot, but later released them.
The victim’s husband, Debashish Bhattacharya, said he could not understand why such a modern hospital does not have an ICU for the patients.
One of the directors of Dr Azmal Hospital, Mir Atahar Ali, said that the damage caused by the students had caused a loss of at least Tk 50 lakh to the hospital.
He said that Ferdousi Begum was not employed by their hospital but was allowed to use the operation theatre.
On September 15, two patients — Shuvendu Dey of Khulna and Bulu Khatun, 30, of Sirajganj — died due to alleged wrong treatment, triggering protests by their relatives.
On September 14, Najma Begum died at the Fuad-Al-Khatib Hospital in Cox’s Bazar, allegedly due to wrong treatment.
The Pabna district health administration on August 24 sealed a private clinic at Ishwardi upazila headquarters where two patients died, allegedly due to wrong treatment, on August 20.
A doctor was confined to a local clinic for over two hours for alleged wrong treatment in Khagrachhari on July 22.
-With New Age input
