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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

71 - 15th March 2010 - IIT-M student dies - The Hindu

Monday, Mar 15, 2010

City Bureau
CHENNAI: A student of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras died on Sunday, despite efforts by his friends to get medical intervention.

G. Ragavendra (20), studying third year B.Tech. chemical engineering and belonging to Hyderabad, complained of chest pain hours after his birthday party on Saturday evening at Godhavari Hostel, according to police.

His friends rushed him to the health post on the premises.

As his pain worsened, doctors advised the students to shift him to a better equipped healthcare facility. The institute's ambulance was requested.

But, Ragavendra died before the vehicle arrived, the police said.

The Velachery police arranged for Ragavendra's body to be moved to Government Royapettah Hospital (GRH) for autopsy.

However, staff at the hospital could not conduct the post-mortem as there was no forensic science expert.

The students were asked to take the body to the Government Kilpauk Hospital (KMC).

The autopsy was done at the KMC on Sunday evening and the body sent to Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, students of IIT-Madras have made a representation to the faculty that a delay of 20 minutes in the arrival of the ambulance stationed inside the institute had resulted in the death of the student, the police said.

IIT-Madras Dean (Students) M. Govardhan said, “There was a small delay… much less than 20 minutes in the arrival of the ambulance. Incidents of such nature are rare at IIT-Madras, so the driver of the vehicle was not prepared.”

The State's Director of Medical Education, S. Vinayagam, said the body had to be shifted from the GRH to the KMC as in a teaching medical institution autopsies should be performed only under the supervision of a forensic science expert. Arrangements were being made to rectify the shortfall of forensic science experts in GRH, he added.

(With inputs from

R. Sujatha, Petlee Peter and Ajai Sreevatsan)