CNN said on Thursday that it is working to verify the identity of the Nepalese patient operated by its medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, following a published report that said Dr. Gupta mistakenly told viewers that he had treated someone else.
Dr. Gupta, a practicing brain surgeon, operated on a girl on April 27 at Kathmandu’s Bir Hospital shortly after he had been sent to Nepal to cover the aftermath of a deadly >earthquake there. In a video report that day, Dr. Gupta identified the patient as 8-year-old Salina Dahal and said she needed emergency surgery because of a fractured skull, blood clot and swelling of the brain.
The Global Press Journal reported this week that according to the girl’s family and doctors, Ms. Dahal was never operated on. Instead, Dr. Gupta operated on a 14-year-old girl, Sandhya Chalise.
Dr. Gupta on Wednesday said the hospital’s triage unit was a chaotic situation that was “unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
He had relied upon the hospital to identify his patient and CNN acknowledged that the hospital may have provided him with incorrect information.
Asked how Dr. Gupta might have mistaken the girl on a stretcher in his report for the person he operated upon, CNN spokeswoman Neel Khairzada noted that it was brain surgery, and the rest of the patient’s body was obscured by drapes.
Confusing matters, a CNN text report from Nepal that was posted online before Dr. Gupta spoke on the air identified the patient as Ms. Chalise, which the Journal said was accurate. But after Dr. Gupta’s report, CNN changed its text story to say the doctor operated on Ms. Dahal.
CNN is now working to make sure it has the correct information about the patient and will correct the record if Dr. Gupta’s report is proven wrong, she said. Both Ms. Dahal and Ms. Chalise are apparently doing well, Gupta said.
Massive earthquake in Nepal; over 1,500 killed
7.9 earthquake in Nepal; tremors felt across north India
A strong 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook Nepal's capital causing massive damage. Some tremors are reported to have lasted as much as 20 seconds.
