Woman seeks action against Tamil Nadu Medical Council for inaction

Trichy: The row over medical negligence that resulted in a 129 cm gauze being left in a woman’s stomach at a private hospital in Trichy reached a high point on Monday with the woman demanding action against the Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) for ‘failing to take action against the erring’ hospital here.

For A Rajalakshmi, 27, from Burma Colony in Trichy district, it was her latest attempt seeking justice for the alleged negligence of the doctors in a private hospital in the city who left a gauze measuring 129 cm length and 11 cm width in her stomach during a surgery on June 30, 2015.

This time, her tirade was against the TNMC for refusing to take action against the hospital citing lack of evidence in the report submitted by a five-member committee of doctors formed by Trichy collector K S Palanisamy.

“We learnt that the TNMC did not take the evidence of removing the gauze from my stomach at Command Hospital in Bengaluru as a valid one to take action against the hospital. Their decision caused severe mental agony to me. So I demand the collector to recommend action against the medical council,” said Rajalakshmi on Monday.

On June 28, ToI reported that TNMC president Dr K Senthil ordered a re-probe into the matter as the report of a five-member committee failed to convince them about the error on the part of the hospital. The council refused to initiate action against the hospital citing a lack of evidence to prove if the gauze was really taken out from her stomach at the Command Hospital in August 2015.

However, her husband P Anand, a soldier in the army, said the TNMC did not probe the matter properly by not accepting the genuine medical case sheet of operating out the gauze. The medical sheet signed by GP captain KM Babu reads: “This is to certify that Rajalakshmi, wife of P Anand, 26 years, underwent emergency exploratory laparotomy for post-caesarean intra-abdominal pelvic abscess with sepsis on August 19, 2015 with intraoperative finding of large roller gauze in the abdomen…”

“It is unacceptable to refuse to consider the certificate of an army hospital as an evidence. Further, a CT scan taken at Trichy GH on August 17 also revealed multiple intra-abdominal abscess. The Tamil Nadu Medical Council is not acting fairly,” said Anand.

Anand claimed that the collector told him to bring the matter to the director of medical services.

Several attempts to contact collector Palanisamy went in vain.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Trichy/Woman-seeks-action-against-medical-council/articleshow/53053885.cms?from=mdr