A Kunnamangalam-based local people’s action committee is planning more protests seeking justice for Hajira Naja, who recently lost her newborn child at Fathima Hospital in Kozhikode city, allegedly due to medical negligence.
Noushad Thekkayil, functionary of the committee, told The Hindu on Sunday that though Ms. Naja had lodged complaints with the Chief Minister, Health Minister, Kozhikode District Collector, Health department officials, senior police officials, including the Inspector-General of Police, and the Kerala State Human Rights Commission, no action had been taken.
According to her family members, Ms. Naja was taken to the casualty section of the hospital on February 24 with fever and loss of amniotic fluid. They claimed that the hospital authorities delayed admitting her to the labour ward. Around six hours later, though a C-Section surgery was performed, the child could not be saved. Thereafter, Ms. Naja’s relatives also said that the hospital authorities took time to diagnose her post-delivery complications.
What attracted media attention, however, was some related developments when P.K. Ashokan, husband of Anitha Ashokan, the gynaecologist who treated Ms. Naja, was allegedly manhandled by some people who accompanied Ms. Naja. This happened before some of the hospital property was damaged by some of them. The police filed cases against six persons and arrested three of them. The Indian Medical Association and doctors’ associations organised two strikes, one in Kozhikode city and another across the State, demanding action against the increasing number of attacks against health professionals.
Now, though Ms. Naja and her mother-in-law, Fathima Beevi, filed separate complaints against Dr. Anitha Ashokan and the hospital authorities, the family members and the action committee allege that official action was not forthcoming. “The police have just recorded some statements. They are yet to file a first information report,” Mr. Noushad alleged. Ms. Naja’s relatives allege that Dr. Ashokan had “created a drama” by falsely claiming that he had been attacked, in a bid to save his wife from the case. Meanwhile, P.T.A. Rahim, Kunnamangalam MLA, is learnt to have promised the action committee to raise the issue in the Legislative Assembly.
