Chandigarh: In a harrowing incident at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI), a new mother, who had recently recovered from an intensive care unit (ICU) stay, fell victim to a potentially deadly attack when an unidentified woman entered the gynecology ward and injected the patient with a foreign substance.
The police have treated the case as attempted culpable homicide and lodged a complaint under Section 308 of the Indian Penal Code. The police have also submitted a letter to PGIMER Medical Superintendent on Sunday asking for a detailed report of their findings.
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As per a recent media report by The Indian Express, late in the evening on November 15, the accused gained unauthorized access to the gynecology ward, exploiting the trust of the hospital staff by falsely claiming to be a nurse sent by a doctor. The victim, who had just emerged from days in the ICU, was the unfortunate target of her dire motives. The victim has been identified as a 24-year-old woman, who had been referred to PGI from Banur in Patiala.
According to the police report, the accused woman confidently stated that she had been sent by a doctor to administer an injection to the new mother. However, suspicion arose among the patient's family members once the injection was administered, prompting them to inquire about the doctor's name who had sent her. The situation escalated when the woman could not provide satisfactory answers to the family's questions. Faced with scrutiny, she became visibly nervous and hastily fled from the gynecology ward.
The victim's sister-in-law gave a statement to the police stating that the victim had recently given birth at Banur, Patiala. Her condition worsened following delivery, and she was then referred from there to the PGI. She was first admitted to the ICU at PGI and then moved to the gynaecology unit. The victim, despite prompt medical attention, is currently in a serious condition as a result of the injection which had a foreign substance. When contacted, Professor Vanita Suri, the chair of PGI's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, stated that the patient was receiving treatment for acute kidney damage and puerperal sepsis in the trauma ICU. She also mentioned that the department's Dr. Vanita Jain was looking into the "nurse" who gave the patient the harmful injection, reports the daily.
In the letter submitted to the PGI Medical Superintendent, the police asked them some pivotal questions like the possibility of any unknown individuals entering the premises, particularly women or doctors who could visibly detected administering injections in the gynae ward at Nehru Hospital. The police requested details on any symptoms or changes in the victim's health that they had noticed, as well as the preservation and analysis of samples, and information about any unknown injections that the victim had received. Police further instructed the hospital to form an expert committee to look into the occurrence and to submit an inquiry report at the earliest, reports TIE.
A police officer said, “We were informed that almost all CCTV cameras installed in Nehru Hospital were damaged in the recent fire accident in a particular block. The investigation is going on. The family background of the victim, Harmeet Kaur, who has an inter-caste marriage, has been thoroughly examined. She delivered a boy in the first week of November and was later rushed to PGI due to serious kidney ailments.”