Chandigarh:
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) today called the death of a 55-year-old patient being burnt alive in the hospital's Emergency recovery room as a "freak accident" and constituted a committee to investigate the matter.
Ghinder Singh, a resident of Doraha in Ludhiana district, was burnt alive yesterday night.
PGIMER authorities today maintained that the death was a "freak accident" and a committee would investigate the matter so that its recurrence could be avoided.
The deceased's relatives had taken the body today and had not pressed for charges in the case, they said.
Singh had complained of breathlessness and doctors were trying to revive him when his bed caught fire from the sparks of a machine, his nephew Virender Singh claimed.
Other patients were evacuated from the room after the fire, he said.
The victim was admitted to PGIMER a month ago and had been operated for a liver disorder on Saturday