An 18-year-old girl died at a primary health centre (PHC) in Udaipur on Friday, minutes after being administered an injection by nursing staff in the absence of a doctor at the facility. Family members reported that Aarti Kumari was suffering from cough and cold and was taken to the Mandwa primary health centre in Udaipur’s Kotda block. In the absence of a doctor, a nurse administered an injection without examining Kumari or referring to a prescription, the family alleged. She collapsed within minutes and died, they added.
The cause of her death, however, remains to be established. “A post mortem was conducted on Saturday, but the report is still awaited,” said Aditya Atreya, chief medical health officer (CMHO), Udaipur.
Villagers gathered at the PHC following the incident, insisting that nursing staff cannot legally provide treatment in the absence of a doctor and demanding compensation and legal action against the nurse concerned. Later, the girl’s family and protesting villagers moved to the Kotda sub-district hospital, where they staged a dharna for two days.
Kotda block CMHO Shankar Lal Chouhan said the mob created unrest and made hospital staff fearful that any adverse patient outcome could provoke violence. In response, nurses across the Kotda block struck work on Sunday. They alleged that the Mandwa PHC nursing officer in question, Ravi Chejara, had been forced to pay Rs 1 lakh as ‘mautana’ (compensation for wrongful death).
The nurses said fear had spread among medical staff and that services at all medical institutions in Kotda block would remain stopped until higher authorities gave them written assurance of employee safety, and the money paid by nurse Chejara was returned by the deceased girl’s family.
Vacant posts of medical officers have left several health institutions in Kotda block without qualified doctors, leaving patients at the mercy of nursing staff. In a letter to his superiors dated May 2, Kotda CMHO Chouhan said that vacancies across medical institutions in the block had created unmanageable workloads and sparked fear among staff over their ability to discharge their duties under pressure.
