A 42-year-old patient died hours after a ceiling fan, allegedly detached from the ceiling, fell on him while he was undergoing treatment at the emergency ward of Delhi’s Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital on Saturday night.
On 18 July, the deceased Md Akbar was brought to the emergency department of the hospital by his brother. Hospital staff familiar with the incident said Akbar was being treated for hypertension, meningoencephalitis and aspiration pneumonia.
Fan Falls on Patient During Treatment in Emergency Ward
The incident reportedly took place around 9.30 pm in emergency ward 27, when a nursing officer was administering treatment to Akbar. During the procedure, the ceiling fan above the patient’s bed suddenly fell, injuring both the patient and the attending nursing officer.
“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,” said a hospital staff member aware of the developments.
Hospital sources said the patient suffered injuries following the accident. According to Akbar’s death certificate reviewed by HT, he died at around 12.16 am, less than three hours after the incident.
Death Certificate Lists Existing Medical Conditions
Hypertension, meningoencephalitis, and aspiration pneumonia were listed as causes of death on the death certificate. However, the incident has raised concerns among the patient’s family members about the infrastructure of the hospital, safety measures and circumstances of his death.
GTB Hospital staff said Akbar’s relatives reached GTB Hospital on Sunday morning to query the quality of treatment and what happened inside the emergency ward.
Questions Raised Over Hospital Safety Measures
The death of a man has raised a fresh concern about the safety standards in Delhi’s health care setting, especially in busy emergency rooms where patients have the right to expect a safe environment where they can experience uninterrupted medical care. However, there has been no response from GTB Hospital on the incident so far.
Sudeep Singh Rawat is a Copy Editor at NewsX Digital with over five years of experience in digital journalism. He covers national and international news, with a focus on politics, crime, technology, public affairs, and trending topics. Before joining NewsX Digital, he worked with Business Standard, The Sunday Guardian, and other digital media organisations. His reporting focuses on breaking news, enterprise stories, and explainers that inform readers through accurate, balanced, and context-driven journalism.
