Court Correspondent

The High Court on Monday ordered the submission of an investigation report within three months over the death of a man during an endoscopy at LabAid Hospital in the capital last month.

The court also asked to form a probe committee with an additional secretary of the health ministry as its chief, for preparing and submitting the report.

The bench of Justice KM Kamrul Kader and Justice Khizir Hayat also asked relevant authorities to explain why the hospital should not be ordered to pay Tk10 crore in compensation to the family of the victim, Rahib Reza.

The court also gave LabAid authorities, secretary of the health ministry, and chief of the Directorate General of Health Services one month to explain why a medical board should not be formed to investigate the deaths of patients due to the negligence of doctors.

Rahib Reza, 31, a product manager and IT consultant at a private company, reportedly died of cardiac arrest at the ICU of LabAid Hospital’s Dhanmondi branch on 19 February, four days after undergoing faulty endoscopy procedures at the hospital.

His family alleged that LabAid medical staff gave Reza anaesthesia without seeing the required diagnostic reports. As a result, the different health issues Reza suffered from were ignored during the anaesthesia application and subsequent endoscopy procedures. He consequently fell ill and later succumbed to his ailments. He sought endoscopy primarily due to gas complications in his stomach.

At LabAid hospital, Reza was seeking treatment under Prof Mamun Al Mahtab (Shwapnil), head of the Department of Interventional Hepatology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

Reza’s family filed a writ petition with the High Court on Monday seeking the cancellation of licenses for LabAid Hospital and the concerned physicians as well as compensation for Reza’s death.

Barrister Rashna Imam moved for the writ petitioner on Monday, while Deputy Attorney General Sheikh Md Saifuzzaman appeared for the state.