Auto driver jumps from 8th floor of Seven Hills Hospital

He was mentally disturbed post bypass surgery, says family

Mumbai: A 57-year-old autorickshaw driver, who had recently undergone a bypass surgery, jumped from the eighth floor of Seven Hills Hospital in Andheri on Monday morning.

Ram Jaiswal (57), a resident of Behram Baug in Jogeshwari, was admitted to the hospital on July 14. He underwent a coronary bypass surgery on July 19 under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana. He was to be discharged later in the day.

His wife Durgavta, who was with him when the incident occurred, said, “I don’t know what had got into him after the operation. He was taking a walk in the hospital corridor at 10.30 a.m., when he suddenly ran towards the glass railing and jumped over it before I and my son could react.” Ms. Jaiswal, in a bid to stop her husband, fell and sustained an injury to her head.

Jaiswal was immediately taken to the emergency ward where he was declared dead before admission. The body was sent to Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle for post-mortem. The couple had three sons, Vinod, Pramod and Pravez.

“He was irritated with all of us and used to keep a distance while taking a walk. He badly wanted to go home, but was kept under observation, and this irked him. Even today, during his walk, he was at a distance,” said Mr. Pramod.

The MIDC police will be recording statements of Jaiswal’s wife and sons. “We have registered an accidental death report. There was no suicide note found and the motive behind the step is yet to be ascertained,” said senior inspector Shailesh Pasalwar, MIDC police station.

Jaiswal’s family members and friends, however, said he was mentally disturbed. His neighbour Mohammed Tariq Khan (37), who had helped him with the admission and subsequent procedures, said, “After undergoing an angiography, he told me that he was feeling fine and didn’t want to be treated. As he was getting treated under the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana, doctors told him to either bear the expenses or go ahead with the surgery.”

Jaiswal’s brother Pyarelal said, “He would tell us things like doctors and medical staff were threatening to throw him out of the window, and that a relative of some patient in his ward, who is a policeman, was going to harm him. This morning, when I rushed to the hospital after his wife called, he told me that the doctors were going to kill him.”

Dr. Rajendra Karva, Medical Superintendent at Seven Hills Hospital, said, “This is one of the rarest cases that I have seen in seven years of my career when a patient, who had no complications in his surgery and did not have to pay for his treatment, took such a drastic step.”