Probe ordered after woman dies during treatment at Alappuzha Medical College

Kochi: Following the death of a 31-year-old woman who was undergoing treatment for postpartum complications a month after giving birth to a child at the Alappuzha Government Medical College Hospital (GMCH), tension prevailed at the hospital after relatives staged a protest alleging medical negligence.

According to the family members, the doctors failed to provide adequate care to the patient which resulted in the escalation of a severe infection that allegedly took her life within 35 days after giving birth to her child at the same hospital.    

As a result, they filed a complaint against the doctor and the hospital authorities following which the police registered a case of unnatural death stating that alteration would be done to the FIR depending on the medical reports of the deceased.       

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The incident took place on April 28 when the 31-year-old woman patient from Karoor in Purakkad panchayat breathed her last at the hospital during treatment for her postpartum complications. She was admitted to the hospital on March 21 and gave birth to a baby girl on March 26. 

After the delivery, she was discharged from the hospital a few days later although her child was still under the hospital's care due to health concerns. On March 30, her family members observed that her condition deteriorated and readmitted her to the ICU of the same hospital. It was revealed that she developed an infection. 

In their complaint, it was alleged that the doctors were aware of the patient's condition but chose to ignore it by prescribing some medicines without doing a proper examination. Subsequently, her health deteriorated and doctors informed her family members that she might not survive the next 24 hours.

They added that she underwent dialysis and doctors informed them that she contracted a severe infection during the dialysis procedure. The doctor's opinion was that she had contracted this infection before delivery. Following this, the family members consulted the expert's opinion who said that the infection was caused by the negligence of the doctors as reported by TOI. 

Further, they obtained expensive medicines to treat the infection which were unavailable at the hospital. However, they discontinued the antibiotics before the infection was fully managed, which ultimately resulted in her passing, as claimed by the family members.

Consequently, a protest was held by the family members in front of the hospital accusing the doctors and the hospital authorities of medical negligence and demanding action against them. 

Meanwhile, the Medical Superintendent of Alappuzha Medical College Dr Abdul Salam refuted the allegations claiming that the patient died from two cardiac arrests and the medical negligence claims were untrue.

He told Onmanorama, "She had a urinary tract infection which later spread to the patient's stomach. A surgery was carried out following which the condition of the patient was gradually improving. However, two back-to-back cardiac arrests in the last two days worsened the condition of the patient, eventually leading to her death. A medical board would be constituted to further probe the matter."

An enquiry committee will be constituted to probe her death and action will be taken according to the findings of the report.   

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