Government medical college teachers have opposed the reported move by the police to arrest two doctors and two nursing staff in a case related to an alleged botched C-Section surgery performed at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, in 2017.
A surgical instrument was allegedly left behind in the abdomen of K.K. Harshina, a native of Adivaram in Kozhikode district, after the surgery. The instrument was removed only in 2022.
According to sources, K.N. Jayakumar, Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor, has advised K. Sudarshan, Assistant Commissioner of Police attached to the Medical College Police Station, who is investigating the case, that legal proceedings can be initiated against the doctors and nurses on duty at the time of the surgery. The police are reportedly planning to frame charges under Section 338 of the Indian Penal Code on the grounds of medical negligence and arrest them soon.
Nirmal Bhaskar, president, and Rosnara Begum, secretary, Kerala Government Medical College Teachers’ Association (KGMCTA), said that the police move would put doctors and nurses in a shadow of a doubt. They claimed that doctors and nurses would never harbour a mentality to hurt their patients. The KGMCTA leaders cited Supreme Court orders to highlight the validity of medical board decisions in medical negligence cases. In Ms. Harshina’s case, the district medical board has found that it cannot be completely proved that the surgical instrument must have been left behind during the surgery performed at the medical college hospital. The police report, however, contradicted this finding, and said the lapse should have happened there. This report was allegedly prepared without examining the technical aspects of the medical board’s decision, Dr. Bhaskar and Dr. Begum claimed.
They also criticised the police claim that no metallic object had been found during an MRI scan done on Ms. Harshina at a private hospital in Kollam in 2017, before the C-Section surgery. The KGMCTA leaders said that this explanation was unscientific. They said that until the facts in the case are undoubtedly proved, action should not be taken against the doctors.
