The village, Borisana, 35 km from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad District, mourns in grief and anger after the death of two residents—Mahesh Girdhar Barot, 45 and Nagar Motibhai Senm, 59, who succumbed to cardiac arrest after unnecessary angioplasty procedures conducted on November 12 without their informed consent. Both men were beneficiaries of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).
The alleged malpractice occurred following a health camp organised by Khyati Multispeciality Hospital. Dr Prashant Vazirani, a visiting cardiologist accused of conducting the procedures, has since been arrested. Additionally, four directors of the hospital have been named in three FIRs.
Some families still await the return of loved ones who also underwent these procedures but survived. They remain in Ahmedabad for follow-up treatments, their futures uncertain.
Barot’s family struggles to reconcile his death with the vibrant man they knew. According to his nephew Sunny, Mahesh was so physically active that he cycled 10 kilometres daily to work. A video from just a week before his death shows him dancing energetically at a local temple event.
“He was the youngest of six siblings and the first to pass away,” said his elder brother Jairam. Mahesh, a bachelor and the primary breadwinner for his family — including two widowed sisters and their children — died on the same day he was taken to the hospital. “The ventilator was still running beside him when we arrived,” his family recounted.
For Senma’s family, the pain is equally acute. His elder son, Bharat, sits outside their modest home, his head shaven in mourning. Despite the ongoing rituals, his younger son Praveen has returned to farm work to make ends meet.
The health camp, held on Sunday at the village’s Mahadev temple, drew over 80 attendees, primarily farm labourers and factory workers. The next day, 19 villagers were transported to Ahmedabad by hospital bus for further tests. According to the FIR filed by the state government, angiographies were performed on all 19, followed by angioplasties on seven individuals.
The FIR alleges the procedures were unnecessary, conducted without informed consent, and accompanied by inadequate postoperative care. These factors reportedly led to the deaths of Barot and Senma.
Seventy-seven-year-old Bacchu Govaji Barot, who now lives with a stent in his artery, recounted his experience. “They took our thumb impressions on a blank letterhead after starting the operation,” he claimed. “Afterwards, we were placed in a ward where no one checked on us.”
Bacchu said he witnessed Senma’s deteriorating condition before his death. “He began vomiting and convulsing. The staff tried to revive him, but he didn’t survive.” He also recalled seeing Mahesh’s body and alerted his family, but by the time they arrived, it was too late.
Popat Ram Raval, 52, a diabetic who also underwent angioplasty, described a sense of helplessness. “The hospital environment and medical jargon left us confused. We felt something was wrong but didn’t know how to speak up,” he said.
For some, the trauma is far from over. Sixty-six-year-old Dinesh Sadhu remains in intensive care at a hospital in Ahmedabad. His wife, Bhagwati, who accompanied him to the procedure, described the chaotic scenes she witnessed. “I insisted on staying near him, even if only in the hospital reception. That’s where I heard two men had died,” she said.
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