The Health department has ordered a forensic examination of the surgical instrument that was allegedly left behind in the abdomen of a woman patient at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, in 2017.
According to sources, the instrument will be handed over to the Home department for its scientific examination to detect its age. This comes in the wake of reports that K.K. Harshina of Adivaram in Kozhikode, the complainant, is planning to seek legal recourse as she is reportedly upset over the Health department’s delayed action on her grievances.
A release said that Health Minister Veena George had set up an expert committee involving surgery and gynaecology doctors from government medical colleges in Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram to inquire into the complaint. The inquiry is still on. The Health Minister’s office claimed that the Additional Chief Secretary, Health, was asked to submit a report soon after the complaint was raised. A special team was set up for an initial inquiry. The expert committee was set up based on this team’s report that a detailed probe would be required.
Ms. Harshina, wife of Malayil Kulangara Ashraf of Pantheerankavu, had claimed that she had developed serious health issues after a C-Section surgery at the Institute of Maternal and Child Health attached to the medical college hospital. The surgical instrument was found during scanning at a private hospital in 2022 after she complained of urinary infection. It was removed later through another surgery at the MCH.
Ms. Harshina continues to have health issues and she was recently admitted to the medical college hospital. Meanwhile, another internal inquiry conducted by the medical college authorities reportedly found no lapses by the hospital staff. The authorities are claiming that the instrument must have been left behind in the course of her earlier two C-Section surgeries conducted between 2012 and 2016.
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