The death of a three-year-old boy, N. Bhuvaneswaran of Pattiyar Kottai area in Ennekkolpudur village near Krishnagiri, sparked a row at the Government Headquarters Hospital in Krishnagiri on Wednesday, with the relatives claiming that dengue and delayed treatment had taken his life.
Medical Superintendent (in charge) of the hospital G. Ashok Kumar denied the charge, stating that the boy tested negative for dengue and the death was caused by aspiration pneumonia immediately after his grandmother gave him milk in the morning.
Aspiration pneumonia occurs when a foreign object or food or beverage enters the bronchial tree. In this case, the milk went into the wind pipe instead of the boy’s food pipe.
But, villagers of Ennekkolpudur, maintained that for a week about 30 persons in the village, many of them children, were suffering from fever. While some managed to reach private hospitals in Bangalore, the others are getting treated in a hospital near the village.
Suspicion of dengue led officials from the Health department to order fogging in the village to control the mosquito menace. (Dengue is caused by a virus transmitted through the bites of Aedes aegypti mosquito).
Hearing of the unrest at the hospital, police rushed to the spot and dispersed relatives and other people from the village who attempted to stage a road blockade.
Claiming that there was a mysterious fever across Krishnagiri, District secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) G. Sekar wanted the district administration and the health department to prevent the situation from worsening.
