Bandra acid attack: Victim's family alleges treatment mismanaged by Masina Hospital

The family of Bandra acid attack victim Preeti Rathi have alleged that the Masina Hospital mismanaged her treatment leading to water accumulation in the chest. She was recently shifted to Bombay Hospital and media reports claimed that the reason for this was because Masina Hospital didn t have the expertise to carry out the surgery to fix the gap between her food pipe and wind pipe. After she was shifted to Bombay Hospital on Saturday, we came to know that water had accumulated in her lungs. She was running a fever all these days, her maternal uncle Vinod Kumar told DNA. They did not treat her internal burns which worsened her condition, leading to infection in her lungs, he added.

Masina Hospital on the other hand refuted these allegations saying she wasn t stable and therefore couldn t perform tests to find out if she was suffering from any damage in the throat region. She was never stable since the time she was brought here. We couldn t do her endoscopy all these days as she was bleeding from upper end of the food pipe, said one of the treating doctors from Masina Hospital. If we had preponed the gastroscopy, the area would have perforated and there were high chances of her dying due to the shock, he added

On Monday, Preeti underwent a bronchoscopy to figure out the extent of damage to her chest cavity. She has developed chemical pneumonitis as she had ingested the acid, said Dr Ashok Gupta, plastic surgeon, Bombay Hospital.

Another doc told DNA that they would wait for her wounds to heal completely before conducting a reconstruction surgery for the hole. Till then, she will take nutrition through the feeding tube. We have done a minor surgery where we introduce a feeding tube inserted through the skin into the stomach through a small hole in the abdomen, said the doctor.

Preeti Rathi had come to Mumbai to join duty as a nurse in the Naval Hospital when she suffered an acid attack at Bandra station. She sustained severe burns to her face, neck, chest and arms and was critical for a few days after admission. Doctors treated her for her injuries but she had lost vision in her right eye. While she subsequently regained consciousness and could communicate only with written notes, she pleaded with the doctors to help restore her vision. She underwent stem cell therapy, where cells from her left eye were used to restore vision in her right eye. Read more about the full procedure which Dr Yasmin Bhagat, her treating surgeon explained to us.