Thiruvananthapuram Medical College has been accused of fatally delaying the kidney transplant of a patient.
It is said that the kidney of a brain-dead 36-year-old patient in Rajagiri Multispeciality Hospital in Kochi was reached the Medical College in quick time, using the green corridor system under which traffic is rearranged to prioritise the movement of the organ. Though the ambulance carrying the organ reached by around 5.30 p.m. on Sunday, the charge is that the transplant operation began at least four hours late. Making matters worse, the beneficiary has been declared dead. Health minister Veena George has ordered an enquiry into the incident.
It is also alleged that the Medical College was not kept on high alert when the ambulance carrying the kidney arrived from Rajagiri Hospital. The Medical College had not put in place any measures to receive the organ container from the ambulance and rush it to the operation theatre. The people who arrived in the ambulance themselves had to take the container and rush to the operation theatre. It is further said that the team had to wait for at least five minutes before the operation theatre was opened to receive the container.
Experts Onmanorama talked to said a delay of half-an-hour to one hour or even two hours before the transplant begins was normal. "Nonetheless, the doctors in charge of the Nephrology Department should explain such a long delay," a leading surgeon said on the condition of anonymity.
A top source also said that it was at the intimation of the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College that the organ was rushed to Thiruvananthapuram. Initially, the kidney of the patient who had died in Kochi was allotted to Kottayam Medical College. When the Kottayam Medical College informed that it did not have a suitable beneficiary, authorities in Thiruvananthapuram informed that it had one.
We have not been able to get in touch with the doctors involved in Kerala Network of Organ Sharing, or Mrithasanjeevani. The story will be updated once we receive their version.
