A 16-year old boy died after he allegedly fell from the fourth floor of the Periyar Nagar Government Hospital on Friday night.
According to the police, D. Vignesh was a class XI student. His father Dhandapani works in a shop and mother Sujatha is a homemaker.
On January 21 he was admitted to the Periyar Nagar Government Hospital with high fever.
On Friday night he had gone to the toilet. Police suspect that Vignesh, in a giddy state, might have placed his hand on a plank which covered a gap in the wall near the toilet. As the plank was not secured to the wall, he fell through a maze of pipelines, they said. He sustained severe head injuries and was rushed to the Government General Hospital and then to a private hospital in Pallikaranai, where he died on Sunday.
“They did not treat him properly and did not even clean the clot on his head stating various reasons. We were not able to bear it hence we took him to the private hospital. He was unconscious then,” said G. Venkatesan, the victim’s uncle, adding that the boy’s organs including the heart were donated. The body has been cremated, he said.
Vignesh was a good student and was jovial by nature. “He loved love birds and has a couple of them. He wanted to get a job after completing his undergraduation and help his father. But all that has ended now,” said Mr. Venkatesan.
A .Nagarajan, general secretary of thr Periyar Nagar House Owners Welfare Association, said the hospital was in a pathetic condition. “There is a shortage of staff and medicines,” he alleged. The hospital was inaugurated in 1985 by the then chief minister M.G. Ramachandran.
The hospital was earlier under the directorate of medical education, but was recently shifted under the directorate of medical services under the Tiruvallur collectorate. “After this the condition started deteriorating,” said Mr. Nagarajan.
According to a senior health official, the boy could not have fallen unless he aimed to as the wall would have prevented it. He said that surprise checks were conducted in the hospital every month. “Even the toilets are inspected,” he said.
The police have registered an FIR and investigation is on.
The health department official said that steps were being taken to prevent such incidents. “Our request is that parents do not leave adolescent patients without an attender,” he said.
