Chandigarh: 30-year-old patient dies in Dental Hospital after given local anaesthesia, probe on

Chandigarh: In an unfortunate incident, a 30-year-old female patient was recently declared dead from cardiac arrest after the doctors administered her local anaesthesia at Dr. Harvansh Singh Judge (HSJ) Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Sector 25, Panjab University.

Local anaesthesia is used for more straightforward procedures in dentistry, which requires a shorter time to complete and is generally less complicated. However, in the case of the deceased, Shrimati, a resident of Sector 80 in Mohali and a mother of three children, fell unconscious after being jabbed the local anaesthesia by the doctors. 

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Shrimati had been suffering from toothache for many days and decided to visit the hospital with her husband Sooraj, aged 34, around 10 am. The doctors, after checking her, gave local anaesthesia to her gums and asked her to sit for a few mins. Afterwhich she began experiencing uneasiness and breathlessness. Soon she fell unconscious, and the doctors gave her a glucose drip to stabilize her. Even after giving the glucose drip, the patient was not responding.

Concerned about the patient's condition, the doctors immediately called the senior doctors to look into the matter. They performed CPR on her for about one hour, and was ultimately pronounced dead around 12.30 pm. Later, they informed Sooraj about his wife's death, who insisted on taking her body to his village but was reported that the police had already taken her body to GMSH-16 for postmortem. A team of doctors has been formed to perform the postmortem, and the report will be released on Thursday.

The case was registered at Sector 11 police station, and the police have already started investigating the matter. Lignocaine and adrenaline injections that were given to the victim have been seized by the police as evidence of the case.

Other patients at the hospital left immediately without getting treatment after hearing the news of her death in fear to save their life.

Prof Hemant Batra, Director-Principal of HSJ Institutes of Dental Sciences and Hospital told The Indian Express, "A lady patient of around 30 years of age came at 10 am for her teeth extraction. She was given local anaesthesia, and immediately the patient complained of discomfort and breathlessness. The senior doctors were called-in and tried CPR for more than an hour. But unfortunately, the patient couldn't be revived. An anaesthetist, medicine consultant, and various senior dental surgeons were on duty."

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