The paramedical students of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) protested against the hospital administration here on Saturday after the death of an Optometry student.
The inciting students claimed the death was due to the hospital administration’s negligence.
The students said that if the authorities had given them shelter in the hospital, the student’s life could have been saved.
The deceased, Abhishek Malviya, was a first-year student of optometry. Three days ago he complained of choking and breathing problems. When his friends asked for help, hospital authorities reportedly refused an ambulance, saying that Malviya was not a hostelier and that such services should not be provided to students living outside the hospital campus.
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It took 2-3 hours for Malviya to reach the AIIMS emergency, where he was declared critical, after which he was transferred to the hospital’s new private ward. He was later diagnosed with H1N1 (influenza) and his lung function collapsed when he was placed on ECMO.
“When doctors pronounced him dead the next morning, they said he had multiple lung infections, including flu, Covid-19 and bacterial infections. He was on ECMO for artificial lung activity,” the Optometry Students’ Association of AIIMS said in a statement.
Every year, AIIMS conducts an admission test for University of Groningen paramedical courses in which Optometry has a large share. But since the 2020 batch, the hospital started refusing basic RUG facilities, such as hostel accommodation, to RUG paramedical students due to the lack of hostels for MBBS students, the association said.
“If there had been hostels for us, Malviya would have survived. It all happened because of the negligence of the AIIMS administration, and it could happen to others in the future,” the statement said.
“We want security of hostel accommodation from the AIIMS administration so that such tragic incidents do not happen again in the future,” it added.
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