A 41-year-old doctor and a medical technician met with an accident when a speeding car hit the bike they were riding on in Dwarka’s Najafgarh area on February 20. While the doctor was declared dead at a private hospital, the technician’s family alleged medical negligence against it.
According to the First Information Report, the two have been identified as Dr. Rajiv Ranjan, an anaesthetic and resident of Dwarka Mod, and his associate Manish Kumar, 39, a resident of Sultanpuri who worked as a technician at a government hospital in Moti Nagar.
Mr. Manish — in his statement to the police while he was conscious — said he and Dr. Ranjan had gone to Najafgarh to attend a medical call on February 20 and when Kumar was about to drop the latter at Najafgarh metro station, a speeding car hit them from behind and ran off leaving the two severely injured. The police then registered a case on charges of rash driving and causing death by negligence.
Manish’s brother Harish Kumar, a software engineer working in Noida, said his brother’s vitals were fine for eight hours in the private hospital where he was admitted after the accident. “I spoke to him for three hours. The doctors had diagnosed him for surgery, which was due but they kept waiting for the doctor who never came. He could have been saved had his treatment been taken seriously. There was internal bleeding only and there was no other scratch on his body,” he said.
On the same night, Mr. Harish said he went to a Dwarka police station and lodged a complaint regarding medical negligence and submitted the complaint at the office of Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain. “I will take this to the end. My brother would have been alive today if he was operated on”.
Mr. Manish is survived by his wife and two minor children. He was the sole breadwinner of the family, Mr. Harish added.
Dr. Ranjan and his wife Dr. Rashmi Pandey worked relentlessly during the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020, serving at two different government hospitals, leaving behind their 1-year-old son at their landlord’s house.
Dr. Pandey said her husband was very active during both the first and second waves of COVID-19. Despite working at a government hospital, he sometimes used to attend private medical calls. On February 19, Manish told him about a private call for February 20 morning and the doctor agreed.
“He took the metro that day because he wasn’t going to take long. At 10.15 a.m., he sent a WhatsApp message saying that we’ll have breakfast together and suddenly about an hour later, I got a call saying that he has met with an accident,” she added.
Dr. Rajiv Ranjan with his wife and son | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Dr. Pandey said when she reached the hospital, the ambulance carrying him reached right after and she tried resuscitating after finding he had no pulse.
Like Mr. Harish, Dr. Pandey, too, is seeking answers. On February 25, the couple would have completed 10 years of marriage, she said, adding that it has been five days since the accident but she hasn’t heard any worthy update from the police on the investigation. “There’s a CCTV footage of the incident but I don’t know where the investigation has reached,” she said.
She said their now 3-year-old son is unable to comprehend what has happened. “Every time the bell rings, he says Daddy has come and when he realizes it’s not him, he says Daddy is at work,” she said.
