Following a comprehensive investigation into the tragic death of three-year-old Sarthak Yadav at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bhopal, the Bagsewaniya police have registered a case of causing death by negligence against Nursing Officer Madhubala Sharma and duty nurse Anuka Gujarati. Official hospital and police inquiries have confirmed that the toddler’s death was caused by the highly negligent administration of Formalin, a toxic preservative chemical, directly into his bloodstream through an intravenous line. Bagsewaniya Police Station In-charge Amit Soni stated that multiple police teams have been deployed to apprehend the two absconding nursing officers, and investigators are actively questioning the hospital’s nursing administration regarding their whereabouts. The victim’s father, Siddharth Yadav, a resident of Kaurja village in Sagar district, alleged that he repeatedly tried to stop the duty nurse, Madhubala Sharma, warning her three times against administering the injection, but she dismissed his concerns, stating that he was not a doctor.

 

According to Siddharth Yadav, the young patient was admitted to Paediatric Ward-2 at AIIMS Bhopal on December 15, 2025, for the treatment of a persistent fever, with doctors scheduling a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy test. Because Formalin, a chemical compound required for preserving biopsy samples, was unavailable in the ward, the duty nurse, Anuka Gujarati, fetched the chemical in a 10 ml syringe. However, when the biopsy procedure was postponed that day, Gujarati failed to secure the chemical safely, leaving the syringe filled with highly toxic Formalin on the patient’s bedside locker instead of returning it to safe storage. The police investigation revealed that on December 17 at approximately 7:15 am, the toddler’s intravenous line became blocked. To clear the block, the nursing officer on the morning shift, Madhubala Sharma, picked up the unlabelled syringe lying on the bedside locker. Sharma proceeded to use the syringe to flush the intravenous line without checking its contents, verifying the chemical composition, or looking for any identification label on the medicine. Despite Siddharth Yadav explicitly warning the nurse three times that the syringe did not contain normal saline or standard intravenous fluid and pleading with her to consult a doctor first, Sharma ignored his protests and injected the

 

Formalin directly into the child’s vein. Immediately upon receiving the chemical, Sarthak Yadav’s condition deteriorated rapidly, and he lost consciousness. Although he was rushed to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and doctors administered emergency Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in a desperate attempt to revive him, the toddler was pronounced dead at 8:45 am. The formal post-mortem and administrative inquiry confirmed that the child’s death was a direct consequence of the accidental intravenous injection of Formalin. The investigation report held both staff members accountable: Madhubala Sharma committed gross professional negligence by administering an unverified substance, while Anuka Gujarati initiated the fatal chain of events by leaving a highly dangerous, unlabelled chemical in an insecure and highly accessible area near a paediatric patient’s bed.