One accident victim was ignored for 4 hrs as docs bickered over who would treat him; another lay ‘abandoned’ for 2 hrs.Two men who were seriously injured in separate road accidents died at KEM Hospital on Tuesday following alleged delays in their treatment.Bhiwandi scrap dealer Ghanshyam Gupta, 48, was admitted to the hospital just past midnight on Tuesday after a truck crushed his legs on the highway. His family alleges that he didn’t receive any treatment for the first four hours as KEM doctors were busy arguing over the tests he needed to get done and who would attend to him. Gupta died at 9 am on Tuesday.Meanwhile, Andheri resident Budhaji Ramane, 60, knocked down by a speeding tanker, was brought to KEM around 2.30 am on Tuesday as a ‘transfer case’ from Cooper Hospital. He apparently lay unattended on a stretcher near KEM’s blood bank for two hours. By the time a watchman noticed him and alerted the staff around 5 am, Ramane had died.KEM has ordered an inquiry against two doctors and a medical intern over the two deaths. The intern had accompanied Ramane to KEM from Cooper Hospital and it was his responsibility to stay with him until his treatment began. The intern, however, abandoned him and left.When Gupta was brought to KEM, Avinash Tade, a second-year resident doctor, was on duty in the emergency department. Gupta’s daughterPriyanka, 23, said, “We rushed to the emergency department, but if was half an hour before Dr Tade examined my father. Then he asked us to take him to the orthopaedic department as both his legs were fractured. “At the orthopaedic department, Dr Gokul Bandige said his blood pressure is low, so we should take him back to the emergency department. We went back, but Dr Tade was extremely rude, screaming at me to get an X-ray done. When we told him we already had an X-ray from the previous hospital we went to, Dr Tade insisted that we do another one.”When Priyanka went back to the orthopaedic department, Dr Gokul was apparently sleeping. “I requested him to treat my father but instead of helping us he shouted at us for disturbing his sleep,” added a tearful Priyanka. “I pleaded with Dr Gokul, saying my father would die if he did not treat him. He then asked me to get a Doppler test done. When we went to department there was nobody there. Eventually it took an hour to get the test done.”Gupta, according to the family, had become unconscious by then.“We went to the emergency department and were told that his blood pressure was low and that he would have to be put on a ventilator. But then a fight broke out between the two sets of doctors, both sides claiming they didn’t have any ventilators to spare,” Priyanka said. “We complained to the higher authorities and eventually he was put on a ventilator. However, it was too late by then, and my father died a few hours later.”In the second case, 60-year-old Budhaji Ramane was brought unconscious to KEM from Cooper Hospital late on Monday night by a medical intern, who was supposed to accompany him till he was admitted to the hospital. However, the intern simply dropped Ramane off at KEM and left without informing anyone.Ramane, who had injuries to his head and both his legs, was initially taken to Cooper. When his condition stabilised around 2.30 am, he was transferred to KEM, where he was registered as an ‘unknown patient’.The medical intern took him to KEM’s emergency department, where doctors told him to get various tests done. The intern, however, left Ramane on a stretcher outside the blood bank before quietly exiting the hospital.Dr A K Gvalani, acting dean of the hospital, said, “Ramane’s body was found by security staff outside the hospital’s blood bank. It is shocking. It was the responsibility of the intern to ensure that the patient was admitted.”The hospital admitted that there was indeed negligence on the part of their doctors, and instituted an inquiry against Dr Tade, Dr Bandige and the intern. Apart from this, the Bhoiwada police have also registered a case.“In addition to instituting an inquiry in both the cases, I have also issued a circular to the casualty medical officers, assistant medical officers and resident medical officers to ensure that once they refer a patient to any department, he or she should be admitted immediately,” said Gvalani.