Following the death of P. Santhosh Kumar following a procedure in a city hair transplant centre, a debate has arisen among the medical fraternity over whether he was a patient or a client and whether it was a surgical or cosmetic procedure.
Doctors say if a person was administered anaesthetic drugs, then she must be considered a patient and the procedure must be done in a sterile operation theatre. “The procedure should be done by a qualified doctor and qualified technicians should assist the doctors,” S. Mani, Director of Medical Services, who initiated action against the Advanced Robotic Hair Transplant Centre, says.
“A procedure that involves skin-related issues such as removal of warts, moles or skin tag should not be done by non-medical personnel. Centres violating norms will invite action,” he adds. Tamil Nadu Medical Council president K. Senthil concurs. “Non-medical persons should not administer botox injections or treatment like ‘fillers’ using local anaesthetics. We have to take legal opinion on how to apply the Drugs and Magical Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act to such issues,” he says. By this count, follicular hair transplant, the procedure that Santhosh underwent, can be classified as an auto-graft involving surgery. The classification is sharper as it was root follicular translocation – where hair is removed from the root and translocated to another part of the scalp.
“Since it is done using a living tissue, it must be considered a medical treatment. Doing such a procedure outside a hospital atmosphere is a violation of the Hospital Act but cannot be brought under the Organ Transplant Act,” says a surgeon.
