Madras HC directs health department to constitute medical team to examine woman's death post delivery

Madurai: A month after the Madurai bench of Madras High Court directed the Dean of Theni Government Medical College Hospital to submit the medical records regarding the death of a woman who had allegedly passed away due to medical negligence at the hospital, the court also directed the health secretary to set up a medical team and to submit a report regarding the same.  

The petitioner, a resident of Andipatti in the Theni district, attributed the cause of her daughter's death to medical negligence on part of the doctors at the Theni Government Medical College Hospital.

The direction came in response to a plea filed by the mother of a woman, Kanimozhi who was pregnant with her third child and had also undergone regular check-ups at the hospital and had allegedly passed away due to surgery after delivery. 

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported the direction of the high court to the Dean of Theni Government Medical College Hospital regarding the submission of the medical records of the deceased. The petitioner further sought direction from the authorities for exhuming the body of the deceased to conduct a post-mortem and take appropriate action. 

After the Caesarean Section (C-Section), the patient had also opted for tubectomy, i.e. family planning operation on the same day, and she was shifted to another general ward on June 14 after completing all procedures. However, the petitioner claimed that a trainee doctor gave an injection to the patient on June 16, who according to her had not conducted any test on the doctor before administering the injection. It was alleged that after giving the injection, the condition of the patient worsened and she started complaining about severe pain in the abdomen, and subsequently the patient died on June 21. 

During the hearing, the additional public prosecutor submitted that the investigation officer had to get an expert opinion from the doctors despite the registration of an FIR, as per a Times of India report. The petitioner's counsel filed a petition to set up a medical board. 

Following that, justice Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup directed the health secretary to set up a medical team comprising professors and heads of the departments of medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, anaesthesiology, and cardiology, with an order to submit the report to the court within a month. 

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