Lucknow: In a chilling reminder of Uttar Pradesh’s quack menace, a 28-year-old woman died on Wednesday night after a drunken quack and his equally unqualified assistant performed a botched gallbladder surgery while repeatedly pausing to watch YouTube tutorials on a mobile phone.
The victim, Rani Verma from Shikohabad, was admitted to Muskan Nursing Home complaining of severe stomach pain. Owner Sarvesh Yadav (who claims to be a BAMS graduate but has no valid registration) and his compounder Sonu took her to the operation theatre around 9 pm.
Eyewitnesses say both men reeked of alcohol and kept arguing over the next surgical step, forcing nurses to hold up a phone showing “laparoscopic cholecystectomy” videos.
Within minutes, heavy bleeding started. Instead of shifting her to a higher facility, the duo allegedly stitched her up hastily and declared the operation “successful.”
As Rani’s condition worsened, authorities rushed her to Agra’s SN Medical College at 2 am, but upon arrival, they declared her dead. Post-mortem confirmed death due to “haemorrhagic shock from improper surgery”.
Police raided the nursing home on Thursday morning and seized liquor bottles, blood-soaked instruments, and a mobile phone containing YouTube history. Sarvesh and Sonu are absconding; three staff nurses have been detained. Locals ransacked the clinic, forcing heavy police deployment.
Firozabad CMO Dr Narendra Gupta admitted the nursing home had been running without mandatory fire NOCs and biomedical waste authorisation for years. He promised to take action against officials who ignored the situation.
Rani leaves behind a three-year-old daughter and a daily-wage labourer husband who says, “They played with her life for ₹18,000.”