A 33-year-old man hospitalised at the Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata sneaked out of a window on the seventh floor and perched on a cornice for around two hours on Saturday morning but could not be rescued before he slipped and fell. He suffered multiple injuries and later died at the hospital.
A hospital official said the man had been admitted on Thursday with epileptic fits. “He was scheduled for discharge today (Saturday),” he said. “Around 11am, the on-duty sister noticed him trying to escape through a half-open window. She tried to grab him but he went out onto the cornice.”
The patient, a resident of South Dum Dum, stayed on the cornice for nearly two hours before he fell around 1pm.
Fire brigade and police were alerted. “We tried to convince him to come back through the window,” said an officer of Beniapukur police station.
“His aunt who had come for his discharge was made to speak with him. She made a video call to his grandmother who also tried to convince him to return. But everything failed,” the officer said.
Disaster management group personnel put mattresses on the ground apprehending he would fall. The mattresses, however, failed to give him enough cushion when he fell.
The man, a father of two, had recently lost his wife, sources said.
Siddhartha Niyogi, director of health services, Bengal, said he had sought a report from the hospital about the incident.
Based on the patient’s aunt’s complaint, police have initiated a case of causing death due to negligence against the hospital.