One year after she suffered hypoxic brain damage due to alleged medical negligence at the State-run Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Trauma and Orthopaedics (SGITO), four-year-old Mariam Kouser continues to be in coma.
The only improvement, which has rekindled the family’s hope after she was discharged and taken home in October, is that she is accepting feed orally. So far, the little girl was being fed through a nasal tube. “Her mother started feeding her orally when the tube wore out recently and had to be replaced surgically,” Mudassir Pasha, the girl’s father, told The Hindu .
The girl had undergone complications and, subsequently, suffered a hypoxic brain damage after she was operated upon for an elbow fracture at SGITO on December 16 last year. Later, she was shifted to Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health and then to Malathi Manipal Hospital.
Although the girl started breathing on her own after being on ventilator for five months, she continues to be in coma. The family has so far spent over Rs. 30 lakh on her treatment.
The government set up a committee to probe the allegation of medical negligence. Based on the report of the committee, which found negligence by doctors who initially operated upon her at SGITO, the government had in January initiated action against four doctors who were involved in the surgery.
SGITO Director B G Tilak said the services of orthopaedic surgeon Prakashappa T H, who had also been suspended, had been reinstated as the complications were related to anaesthesia.