A patient receiving treatment for multiple ailments at a major government hospital in India died on Saturday night after a ceiling fan fell on him, according to his family and health officials.
Md Akbar, 42, was admitted to the emergency ward at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital with hypertension, meningoencephalitis and aspiration pneumonia, local newspaper Hindustan Times reported.
He died just hours later after a ceiling fan fell on him, according to health officials familiar with the case.
Photos and videos shared by his family members showed an old, rugged ceiling fan with detached wires around his right knee as family members held his hand.
The incident occurred in the presence of hospital staff who were administering treatment to the man.
“The fan fell directly onto the patient’s bed while treatment was being administered. The nursing officer attending to him also sustained injuries in the incident,” an unnamed hospital employee told the newspaper.
The patient died at around 12.16am, less than three hours after the incident.
The death certificate for the man stated that he died from hypertension, meningoencephalitis and aspiration pneumonia.
It was not immediately clear if injuries from the ceiling fan were mentioned in his death certificate.
The Hindustan Times reported that family members of the patient protested against the quality of the treatment given to the man and the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The hospital was yet to issue a statement.
