Alappuzha: Four days after a 31-year-old woman died while undergoing laparoscopic surgery at a Government Hospital here, the post-mortem examination report has attributed the death to “complications developed during the surgery”.
The autopsy report, a copy of which is accessed by Onmanorama, states that ‘the deceased died of intraoperative complications of laparoscopic sterilization’. It further clarifies that the patient suffered a cardiac arrest and subsequent hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and multi-organ dysfunction.
Holding that the report lends credence to their allegations of medical negligence, the relatives of the deceased are slated to file a complaint with the Chief Minister seeking action against the erring doctors.
“It has been over four days since the death took place and nobody from the State Government including the Health Minister has cared to visit the bereaved family even once,” said Unnikrishnan, a relative of the victim.
According to him, the family was determined to pursue the case till its logical end. “With no response from the authorities so far, her husband, who had landed from abroad four days ago, is still unsure how long he would have to stay back. The two infants, meanwhile, are still unable to fathom the fact that their mother is no more,” he added.
The other day, Alappuzha MP AM Arif contacted the family and informed that the Health Minister could not come as she was not keeping well. The MP on Wednesday contacted the Health Minister once again over the phone and demanded stern action as the post-mortem report prima facie showed “a serious lapse on the part of the doctors”.
The minister has assured that immediate steps will be taken in the matter to prevent such lapses from happening again, the MP said, in a statement.
Meanwhile, there is still uncertainty over the outcome of an internal probe into the episode by the District Medical Officer Jamuna Varghese, who had announced the constitution of an expert panel of doctors from Alappuzha Medical College. Multiple attempts to contact the DMO to elicit a response have failed to yield any result.
Besides the DMO, the District Legal Services Authority too has sought a report from the Hospital Superintendent on the incident.
The woman, Asha Sarath, had died while undergoing surgery at the Women and Children’s Hospital near the Alappuzha Beach. The incident kicked up a major row with relatives of the victim, staging a protest against the doctors alleging medical negligence.
