Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, May 4: Doctors are supposed to save lives and put patients out of their misery. But here's a case where a doctor's alleged negligence caused much agony to a 15-year-old boy.

Mehtab injured his arm when he suffered a fall while playing in the compound in his home at Bajpe on Tuesday May 3. He was rushed to city's Wenlock Hospital, but there was no doctor to attend to him for at least five hours. Finally, after a prolonged wait and hours spent in anxiety and pain, a doctor took up his case and diagnosed a fracture in Mehtab's hand. He was told to undergo a surgery, which lasted not more than an hour. By the end of it, all seemed fine and Mehtab's parents were almost heaving a sigh of relief.

However, things got worse over the night when the pain in Mehtab's hand accelerated beyond tolerance. The next day, the doctor checked the arm and said that there was some problem with the surgery and Mehtab was told to undergo another operation to set the fault right.

Mehtab was taken back for another surgery on Wednesday May 4. With a tacky bandage on his arm, he was left waiting for several hours outside the operation theatre.

Finally, frustrated with the shoddy treatment meted out by the hospital doctor who even refused to divulge his name, the parents of the boy shifted him to another private hospital and filed a complaint with the Pandeshwar police station.