Patient dies after vehicle diverted during PM visit to PGI

Chandigarh: A kidney patient died during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to PGIMER hospital on Tuesday with his family saying he was denied timely treatment after securitymen allegedly kept diverting his vehicle.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has ordered a probe intothe incident which happened when Manmohan Singh was at PGIMERto attend a convocation.

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A spokesman of the PMO said it "is saddened" at the death of a patient at the PGIMER during the visit of the Prime Minister. "A full report has been asked for," the spokesman said in a statement.

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The family of the deceased S P Verma, a resident of Ambala in Haryana, claimed that security personnel, including those from Chandigarh Police, deployed at the medical institute, did not allow their vehicle to proceed to the emergency department and kept diverting them from one place to another for about two hours.

"When we came near the PGI, he (Verma) was alive, but his condition deteriorated as we were made to run about for two hours on the plea that the movement of other vehicles had been stopped in view of the movement of the Prime Minister's convoy," alleged a woman relative of the 40-year-old patient.

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She said the patient had some kidney problem and was admitted in a private hospital here from where he was being taken to the PGIMER after he developed respiratory problems this morning.

A senior PGIMER official said that the patient was "brought dead" to the Emergency. The institute was trying to ascertain the details of the incident, he said.