Teen dies as ‘doc’ gives him expired drip

Teen dies as ‘doc’ gives him expired drip 

Amarjeet Singh & Siddharth Pandeytnn 11.10.2026

Bhopal/Jabalpur: In an absolute shocker, an 18-year-old patient died after allegedly receiving an expired intravenous fluid from an unauthorised person at a private hospital in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district. 

The patient received the drip from a bottle that was found to have expired in Nov 2025, police said. The health department sealed the hospital after receiving word of the incident, while the accused was booked and taken into custody. The incident was reported from Ashwini Hospital at Khairi village of Belkharu in the Katangi police station area.

The patient, Shekhar Chaudhary, a resident of Bhatta Mohalla, visited the hospital on Oct 2 complaining of abdominal pain. He was discharged the following morning but developed a severe burning sensation in his hands and feet shortly after returning home. His family took him back to the hospital, where he died during treatment. 

On a complaint by his relatives, police launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. Patan SDOP Ashutosh Dwivedi said CCTV footage examined as part of the probe showed that Dr Sarita Sahu, the hospital’s authorised operator, wasn’t around when Shekhar was treated. Instead, the accused, Satish Sahu, allegedly gave him the fluid despite having no medical degree or diploma authorising him to practise or administer medicines. 

Going over the medicines and devices used during treatment, the investigators found that the intravenous fluid bottle bore an expiry date of Nov 2025. Police seized the partially filled bottle, the drip set, a needle, an empty injection vial and medicine wrappers from the premises. The needle, too, bore a manufacturing date of Dec 2023 and an expiry date of Nov 2025.

The probe, as it unfolds, is likely to examine the course of treatment to the patient while also establishing the sequence of events leading up to his death. Meanwhile, the preliminary probe findings have raised serious concerns over the lack of qualified medical personnel and the handling of medicines at private healthcare facilities in rural areas. The police, however, are yet to establish a definitive medical cause of death.