Jamshedpur: A 12-year-old boy from West Singhbhum district died of cerebral malaria while undergoing treatment at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital (MGMMCH) here late on Friday, prompting his family to allege medical negligence.Harish Biruli, a resident of Matamhatu village, was admitted on Thursday along with his four-year-old sister, Jyoti, after both developed symptoms of malaria.Doctors said Harish was in a critical condition at the time of admission and was shifted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for specialised treatment. He died despite medical intervention. Jyoti, however, responded well to treatment and was discharged after recovering, hospital sources said.Harish’s mother, Shanti Biruli, alleged that her son did not receive adequate medical attention. She claimed that no senior doctor visited him after he was shifted to the PICU and that only junior doctors attended to him.“When my son’s condition worsened, doctors asked me to buy additional medicines from the market. By the time I returned, he had died,” she alleged.Hospital superintendent Dr Balram Jha rejected the allegation, saying doctors regularly attended to patients and continuously monitored their condition. He said the hospital administration would examine the circumstances surrounding the death and take appropriate action if any lapse on the part of the medical staff was found.West Singhbhum has reported over 5,000 malaria cases till the first week of Aug, with 35 infections detected daily on average, civil surgeon Dr Jujhar Majhi said. Health authorities have conducted 5,000 tests daily for the past two months.
