The post-mortem examination conducted on Neethu, 24, who had died suddenly at the Government Medical College hospital here on Saturday night, soon after she underwent an ENT surgery, has revealed that she had died of a myocardial infarction (MI or heart attack) following the occlusion of the right coronary artery.
Neethu, who had first visited the ENT OP clinic three months ago following chronic middle ear infection, had undergone a Mastoidectomy and Tympanoplasty on Saturday morning. After the surgery and observation period, she had been shifted to the post-operative ward (ward 8) by evening.
MCH authorities said that her condition had been satisfactory when doctors examined her again at 6.30 p.m. However, she developed abdominal pain around 7.45 p.m. and as her condition suddenly worsened, she was rushed to the Surgical ICU. Though the doctors intubated her and tried to resuscitate her, she died around 9 p.m.
MCH authorities said the woman had undergone surgery for ventricular septal defect (VSD) at SCTIMST in 2002. But she was taken in for the ENT surgery after the pre-operative cardiology clearance.
‘Difficult to recognise’
“It is unusual for a 24-year-old woman to develop an occlusion in the right coronary artery. Though inferior wall MI can manifest as abdominal pain, it would have been very difficult to recognise,” a senior doctor at MCH said.
It had been reported that the ENT duty doctors had failed to reach the ward on time. But the ENT doctors’ duty room is far from the post-operative ward 8. Both MCH lifts were not functioning at the time. However, doctors from the Surgery department did attend to the patient.
“The patient was complaining of abdominal pain. The key question is whether they recognised it to be a heart attack and if the post-op ward had facilities – a defibrillator at least – to deal with the situation. ” he told The Hindu.
“We cannot say for sure if this patient could have been saved but was she given a fair chance? Many of our wards do not have defibrillators, which means that catastrophic events like this can recur. And house surgeons and hospital staff need better skills and knowledge to handle emergencies like this,” he added.
