Representative file photo

BAREILLY: A 30-year-old ward boy at Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial (LLRM) Medical College in Meerut was terminated after allegedly mistaking spirit for water while refilling the oxygen chamber of a nebuliser meant for a four-year-old boy. Other staff members noticed Singh’s negligence in time, preventing the spirit from reaching the child.College principal R C Gupta told TOI Saturday that Avinash Singh was inebriated at the time and had a history of reporting for duty in a drunken state. “He was removed immediately after the matter came to my notice. We have instructed ward in-charges and heads of departments to take action against such staff,” Gupta said.Another ward boy, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “Singh was removed twice earlier by ward in-charge over negligent work but would return as the principal was not cognisant of it.” He said that Singh got into a verbal spat with the child’s parents after the incident, following which staff members intervened and took him away. No police case was registered as the parents did not file a complaint.This was the second incident involving misconduct by outsourced staff at the medical college in a week. Last week, two female ward attendants and a ward boy were terminated after they were caught on CCTV assaulting a deaf and mute woman in the ‘lawaris’ (unclaimed) ward. The footage showed them inserting a stick into the mouth of the mentally challenged woman allegedly following a misunderstanding.