EXCLUSIVE: “Have resigned, don’t want to go back”: Thane doctor assaulted by Shiv Sena corporator recounts ordeal | Mumbai News

The sequence of events began around 6 pm when the relatives of a woman who was nine months pregnant asked for a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) bed for the baby before delivery.

Hours after Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre surrendered before the police on Wednesday evening and was arrested along with his aides, the doctor said he felt a sense of relief but rejected Mhatre’s claim that he had not assaulted a woman doctor. “He has tried to shift the focus by highlighting the assault on a woman, knowing that it is a sensitive issue. But that does not justify the assault on a male doctor. No camera angle can hide the truth of what actually happened.”

“I feel relieved and a sense of justice after the action is taken. I am grateful to everyone who stood by me and brought the truth to light. I sincerely hope this sends a strong message that no politician or anyone else will dare to assault doctors and any medical staff in the future,” he added

According to the FIR registered at Vishnunagar police station, the doctor, who is from Washim district, completed his BAMS degree and has been working as an RMO at KDMC’s Shastrinagar Hospital for nearly five months. On July 6, he was on evening duty from 3 pm to 10 pm along with another woman doctor, two nurses and a hospital attendant (maushi).

The sequence of events began around 6 pm when the relatives of a woman who was nine months pregnant asked for a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) bed for the baby before delivery. The doctor said the woman’s ultrasound had shown two loops of the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby’s neck (double nuchal cord) and reduced blood supply, prompting the gynaecologist to advise an emergency lower segment Caesarean section (LSCS). As the baby was anticipated to require intensive neonatal care after birth, the family insisted on an NICU bed.

“Shastrinagar Hospital has only one emergency NICU bed, which had already been occupied by another critically ill newborn suffering from respiratory distress after meconium aspiration. The relatives wanted us to either give them that bed or discharge the baby who had already been admitted. We explained that was medically impossible. We assured them that we would arrange treatment at another KDMC hospital with NICU facilities, but they insisted on treatment only at Shastrinagar Hospital,” he recalled.

Around 7.30 pm, the patient’s brother telephoned the RMO asking that a bed be arranged. “Shortly afterwards, I started receiving repeated phone calls from Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation corporator Ramesh Mhatre, who insisted that we have to arrange a bed by any means. When I explained to him that no bed was available, he started abusing and threatened me over the phone in extremely foul language. There was simply no way to create a new NICU bed. We cannot discharge another critically ill newborn. We still assured them we would arrange treatment elsewhere,” he said.

The doctor said the woman’s ultrasound had shown two loops of the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby’s neck (double nuchal cord) and reduced blood supply, prompting the gynaecologist to advise an emergency lower segment Caesarean section (LSCS).

Around 8 pm, before the patient could be shifted, four to five men and a woman allegedly barged into the labour ward, where the RMO, another woman doctor, two nurses and a hospital attendant were on duty. “The group abused the medical staff, damaged hospital property, including the oxygen storage area and doors, and physically assaulted us. They struck me on the head with a hospital register and knocked my mobile phone out of my hand as I attempted to contact senior hospital officials.”

“I was the only male doctor there, so I became their punching bag. They repeatedly punched me on my face, head, chest and abdomen. The female doctor, both nurses and the maushi were also assaulted. They didn’t spare anyone.”

Despite the assault, he said, the pregnant woman was shifted to KDMC’s Vasant Valley Hospital, where NICU facilities were available. The doctor said staff at Shastrinagar Hospital coordinated with a paediatrician there because the baby was expected to require neonatal intensive care after birth. “Even after we were assaulted, we did everything possible for the patient,” he said.

“This is the first time something like this has happened to me, but not the first attack in this hospital. Another male doctor was assaulted twice, a female doctor was assaulted around six months ago. Senior officials suppressed those incidents. This FIR happened only because the video became viral because there was a CCTV camera.”

“The group abused the medical staff, damaged hospital property, including the oxygen storage area and doors, and physically assaulted us. They struck me on the head with a hospital register and knocked my mobile phone out of my hand as I attempted to contact senior hospital officials.”

‘We just wanted treatment for my daughter’

Sadhana Karande, the pregnant woman’s mother, said the family rushed her daughter to Shastrinagar Hospital after being told her condition required urgent medical attention. “We had got my daughter’s sonography done and were told that her condition was critical, so we took her to the hospital for her delivery. The doctors examined her and said her condition appeared serious,” she told this newspaper.

According to Karande, the hospital informed the family that no NICU bed was available and advised them to shift the patient elsewhere.

“They asked us to take her to Sion Hospital or another hospital because they did not have the capacity or infrastructure to admit her and conduct the delivery. They also said they did not have oxygen support and that their NICU was already occupied by another patient. I begged them to help us. I told them we were not financially well-off and could not afford a private hospital. Travelling to Sion Hospital would have taken at least five to six hours because the entire area was flooded, and even Sion was waterlogged. I asked them how we were supposed to take her there in that condition.”

Karande said her daughter remained in pain for nearly three hours while the family waited for a solution. “We consider doctors as gods because they save our lives and treat us when we are ill. From 6 pm until around 9 pm, my daughter was in severe pain. She kept crying for help, but we were helpless. The doctors told us another woman who had delivered was in the NICU with serious breathing complications. I said we would wait, but requested them not to delay her treatment.”

She said she then contacted corporator Ramesh Mhatre for help. “With no other option left, I called Ramesh Mhatre dada for help. He asked me to hand the phone to the hospital staff on duty, and I did. I agree that the doctors, women doctors, nurses and the hospital attendant should not have been assaulted. But he was only trying to help us. As a mother, I will think only about my daughter’s well-being, won’t I? Because of dada, my daughter got a bed in another hospital, where she eventually delivered her baby.”