A 50-year-old patient undergoing a leg-amputation at a hospital in Shanghai Baoshan district on Wednesday night died on the operating table after he was left unattended for about 30 minutes, following a fire that broke out in the next room, the hospital confirmed on Thursday.
But local police declined to release details on Thursday, citing an ongoing investigation into the case.
The Shanghai No.3 People's Hospital, meanwhile, said that it would take responsibility for the incident, if the probe determines that it erred in handling the situation properly.
A press officer, who gave only her surname, Hu, from the hospital, told the Global Times on Thursday that able-bodied patients near the affected room left the floor by around 9:45 pm, shortly after one nurse smelt smoke.
Initially, the team working on the patient, identified as Zhu, continued to operate on him – given his critical condition and believing that the fire next door was small and contained, said Hu.
After all, one nurse had gone to check it out, discovering that a disinfector had caught fire in the empty surgery room. She called for help and put out the flames with a fire extinguisher before she returned to the operating room.
Only a few minutes later, heavy smoke billowed out, and the whole floor lost power.
Hu said that the nurses and anesthesiologists then left the room to look for help, but when they failed to return quickly the doctors worried something was wrong and also went in search of help – leaving the patient behind.
“When they got to the entrance of the building, the doctors met a group of firemen and asked the firefighters to follow them back in so they could lead the group to the patient," said Hu. “But the firemen said that it wasn't safe for the doctors to go back inside."
By the time firefighters retrieved the patient, about half an hour later, the man was no longer breathing and he had no pulse. He was confirmed dead soon after.
The doctors believe that severe smoke inhalation and a lack of timely treatment for it killed Zhu, said Hu.
“They wanted to bring Zhu out with them when they went looking for help, but the surgery table is quite heavy and it's dangerous to move a patient in his condition," she said.
“We feel very sorry about what happened," added Hu.
Family members of the dead patient on Thursday crowded the hospital, burning papers and mourning the death of their relative.
Among them, Zhu's wife, who asked not to be named, told the Global Times on Thursday that it was difficult to accept that not one person in the team of six who worked on her husband suffered even a minor injury from the incident that killed him.
“Why wasn't he at least given a mask?" she wondered.
She said that the family is not seeking compensation from the hospital at this time – they want to see the investigation results before making such a decision.