VILLUPURAM: The Puducherry Judicial Magistrate Court I on Sunday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against three government medical staff in a 13-year-old medical negligence case.
According to the case, two doctors and a nurse left cotton gauze in a woman’s abdomen after a tubectomy procedure and tried to cover up the mistake, nearly costing the woman her life. One of the named lady doctors is the incumbent director of the Puducherry AIDS control board.
After a C-section in 2002 and bearing another child in 2004, Dharani (39) underwent a tubectomy on June 7, 2004. Post-surgery, she experienced pain, and started bleeding from where the stitches oh her C-section incision were. She returned to the doctors who handled her delivery, but was discharged after 15 days under observation.
She then went to a private hospital in Tindivanam. On doing a scan, the doctors found a ball-like material in her abdomen. Dharani says the doctors suggested she return to the hospital where she was operated upon. But at the government Puducherry hospital, doctors said the scan reports were botched. Dharani then went to a Chennai hospital, underwent two operations and a cotton gauze, was removed from her abdomen.
The couple filed a suit in the Puducherry Judicial Magistrate court-I in 2004. The case was handed over to the CB-CID and the inquiry report submitted in 2011 in favour of Dharani. The chargesheet accused Dr Vijayanbhanu, Dr Jayanthi and nurse Uma. Though notices were sent, three accused didn’t turn up for hearings in the past 6 years.
Dr Jayanthi became director of the Puducherry AIDS Control Board around six months ago. When the three failed to show up for a hearing again on Tuesday, Puducherry JM court I magistrate Dhayalan issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against them and ordered for them to be produced before it by Sept 15.
According to Dharani, the doctors of the private hospital had told her that her recurring issues and the ball-like object found by the scan were probably the result of the two operations she underwent. They suggested that she return to the hospital where she was operated upon, as the doctors there knew her case history.
But when Dharani was taken back to the government Puducherry hospital with the scan reports proving there was an issue at the location of the surgery, the doctors who had treated her allegedly rejected the scan reports, saying they were botched. The woman, whose condition was deteriorating faster now, was taken to a private multi-speciality hospital at Besant Nagar in Chennai.
There, she underwent two major operations within the span of two months, at a total cost of Rs 10 lakh. A cotton gauze (6x4x5 cm), was removed from her abdomen and the woman took several months to recuperate.
The couple filed a suit in the Puducherry Judicial Magistrate court-I in 2004. However, as the accused were doctors, the case could be taken up only after an inquiry and the court handed the case over to the CB-CID. An inquiry report was submitted in 2011 in favour of Dharani and the chargesheet accused Dr Vijayanbhanu, Dr Jayanthi and nurse Uma.
Though the notices were duly sent, the three accused failed to turn up for any of the hearings in the case in the past six years. Dr Jayanthi had become the director of the Puducherry AIDS Control Board around six months ago, despite Dharani’s husband reporting the pending case to all concerned authorities.
When the three failed to show up for a hearing again on Tuesday, Puducherry JM Court I magistrate Dhayalan issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against all three. The court has ordered for them to be produced before it by September 15.