An internal report prepared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in connection with the death of a man who got sucked into an Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine, or MRI machine, at a Mumbai hospital, accused a ward boy and a female attendant of negligence, The Indian Express reported.
In January, 32-year-old Rajesh Maru was helping an elderly relative get inside the MRI room in Nair Hospital when a ward boy asked him to take the relative’s oxygen cylinder inside. The machine’s magnetic force sucked Maru in, after which his relative and ward boys pulled him out. They took him to the emergency ward as he was bleeding profusely, but he died within 10 minutes.
According to the report submitted to the municipal commissioner on April 11, the ward assistant was on her phone when Maru was entering the MRI room with the oxygen cylinder and did not pay attention to the patient. “The attendant should have warned relatives against entering with the oxygen cylinder, but is seen [in the CCTV footage] simply watching them,” Additional Municipal Commissioner Idzes Kundan told The Hindu. “The ward boy too has ignored this aspect. A detailed inquiry has been proposed.”
After the incident, the hospital administration had suspended the ward boy for negligence. The police have named radiologist Siddhant Shah, senior doctor Saurabh Lanjekar, ward boy Vitthal Chavan and the ward attendant Sunita Surve in the FIR. However, the report does not directly hold Shah and Lanjekar responsible for the death, The Indian Express reported.
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