Giving evidence at the inquiry into the death of a 5 year old
girl at the Colombo Nawaloka Hospital, the mother today pleaded in Court
not to let the investigations into the death of her daughter is covered
up by the money power.
The 40 year old Indumathi
Ekanayake a resident of Heiyantuduwa told Colombo Fort Magistrate
Kanishka Wijeratne that she was making such a request because similar
tragedies could happen to other patients in the future. The Magistrate
observed that he would conduct a fair inquiry in accordance with the
legal provisions vested in him.
The witness said, on
January 31 she brought her daughter to the Nawaloka Hospital in Colombo
because she was suffering from minor symptoms similar to a fit. She said
it was the first time that the child had suffered from such abnormal
behaviour. The mother said the doctor who checked the child recommended
three blood tests and to obtain an MRI scan report. The witness said
after being anesthetized, her daughter Buddhini Kaushalya Ratnayake was
put into the MRI scanning machine and a sound was heard after 30
minutes.
“There were only a doctor and a technician
inside the MRI scan room when the incident happened. I heard the doctor
shouting that the balloon had exploded and nobody was there to assist
him. I pushed off a ward attendant towards the room because there was
nobody inside the room to help the doctor. When my daughter was pulled
out from the machine, I saw, she had turned blue and the belly had
become swollen. Other doctors came there only after eight or ten minutes
had lapsed,” the witness said.
“Then they admitted my
child to the ICU and put on a vacuum machine when I told them her body
was so cold. They were deceiving us for a period of four days. On the
fourth day I saw ants entering her nose,” she said.
She
said one of the doctors who were in the hospital told her that the death
was not due to the fault of hospital management. She further complained
to court that although her daughter had died inside the MRI scan
machine; the hospital management had concealed this fact and declared
that she died four days later.
Meanwhile, the Magistrate
observed that officials of the hospital would be summoned to give
evidence in connection with the incident on the next hearing date and
further magisterial inquiry was fixed for February 18.
Counsel
Ravindranath Dabare and Rushanka Samaranayake appeared for the
aggrieved party. Counsel Arosha Koggalawellala and Akalanka Ukwatta
appeared for Nawaloka Hospital.
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