Telangana government has instituted an inquiry into Saturday’s death of an 11-month-old boy following surgical circumcision at Niloufer Hospital.
The death of Sahil Gautam, whose family resides in Ziyaguda, triggered intense protests at the hospital, warranting police to intervene. The family alleged negligence on part of hospital staff in not tackling a medical emergency on time. According to the boy’s family, the child died around four hours after surgery when he experienced difficulty in breathing and a nosebleed.
said, “An inquiry has been instituted to determine what may have led to the baby’s death and whether the staff at the hospital was negligent. Any lapses found, will be strictly dealt with.”
The toddler was wheeled in for surgery to treat phimosis, a condition in which the foreskin of the penis prevents urination. Circumcision is routinely performed at hospitals for both medical and religious purposes, and is considered to be a minor surgery.
However, since it is hard to get infants to cooperate during surgery, general anaesthesia is administered, a source at the hospital informed.
The doctor also said the toddler did not experience bleeding from the site of surgery after the procedure. Dr. Reddy said the inquiry would take a two-pronged approach. One is to determine if there was negligence, while the other is to establish if the child had pre-existing conditions which may have resulted in the death following administration of anaesthesia.
The police registered a case under the section 304 A of IPC to probe whether death was caused due to negligence. The four-doctor team which performed the surgery, comprising surgeons and anaesthetists, was named in the FIR.
On Sunday, an autopsy was performed at Osmania General Hospital amidst heavy security deployment as a large contingent of people in support of the deceased toddler’s family was present. The autopsy report is expected to establish presence of any pre-existing conditions that may have caused death.
