Representative image | Photo Credit: Indiatimes

Kolkata: In a tragic incident, a 16-year-old boy, who was appearing for his Madhyamik (or Class 10)examinations in West Bengal's Birbhum, died on Thursday night in a critical care ambulance that allegedly had an air-condition mechanic impersonating a doctor, a Times of India report said. The boy was being taken to a Kolkata hospital from a nursing home in Burdwam for treatment, after he complained of a prolonged bout of fever and chest pain. Based on the complaint filed by his family members, the Purba Jadavpur police has arrested 25-year-old Sheikh Sarfarajuddin - who posed as the doctor - and the 26-year-old driver of the ambulance, Tara Babu Sha.

As per the report, the family of the boy, Arijit Das, had requisitioned the ambulance and the doctor through a nursing home at Nababhaat in Burdwan. However, on reaching the hospital in Kolkata, the boy was declared brought dead by the doctors, following which they discovered that the man who accompanied their son, posing as a doctor, was actually a mechanic.

The 16-year-old boy had complained of fever, just a day before the state board examinations for class 10 began on Monday. Das, a resident of Nausipur in Nalhati, was able to write three papers in spite of being sick. However, on Wednesday, his condition deteriorated as his fever failed to subside despite medications and he even complained of severe back pain, prompting his father, Ranjit, to take him to Rampurhat Sub-Divisional Hospital. "When all blood test reports failed to detect anything, we decided to shift him to a nursing home. We admitted him to Annapurna Nursing Home in Burdwan,” TOI quoted the boy's maternal uncle Dibyendu Mondal as saying.

Doctors at the nursing home failed to make a headway in Arijit's treatement, even as the boy complained of chest pains. His father then decided to take him to Rabindranath Tagore International Institute for Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS) for which the family requested for a critical-care ambulance and a doctor to accompany the patient on the 105-km ride to the city hospital.

“We agreed to pay Rs 8,000 for the ambulance and another Rs 8,000 for the doctor. But when we wanted to sit with my son and the doctor in the ambulance, the driver didn’t let us. We were asked to hire another vehicle,” Ranjit recounted. The family said that while Ranjit and his brother sat next to the driver, the "doctor" sat with the patient in the ambulance. The family alleged that they suspected foul play when the driver fixed the oxygen cylinder instead of the "doctor", but did not press the matter as they were in a hurry to reach the hospital.

However, when they reached the hospital in Kolkata, the doctors declared Arijit brought dead. In the confusion, Sarfarajuddin tried to escape but was nabbed by one of the relatives of the boy. Following this, the accused initially claimed that he was a technician who helped doctors fit oxygen cylinders for the patients at the nursing home. When the shocked family members took him to the police station, he later confessed to just being a mechanic.

“My nephew’s condition was not that critical before we left for Kolkata. In fact, Arijit was looking forward to writing his history examination on Friday. I am sure he would have not died in the ambulance that is supposed to have all life support systems had he been accompanied by a real doctor,” one of Arijit's uncle said, as per TOI report.

An FIR has been in the case. While authorities at Annapurna Nursing Home claimed that neither the ambulance nor the "doctor" was associated with it, district health officials have reportedly said that a probe will be launched against the nursing home as well.

