CHENNAI: In the case related to the death of a five-year-old girl at a hospital in Ambattur, the Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TMC) has summoned two doctors and the complainants for an inquiry after the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services (DMRHS) wrote to the council in April seeking action against the doctors for “gross medical negligence.”
Of the two doctors, only one appeared before the council, the other has been directed to appear along with the first doctor next month, when the inquiry will resume, a TMC member told TNIE. The council has reserved its orders pending further inquiry.
The complaint concerns Neslinriya, daughter of Sheenu Alexander and Jisha of Athipattu, who was admitted to Teja Hospital on December 3 last year with fever and died the following day. Her mother lodged complaints with the Ambattur police and TMC alleging medical negligence, following which police registered a case.
On Monday, the child’s body was exhumed in the presence of Ambattur RDO Ravichandran, revenue officials and police for a re-postmortem. In her letter to TMC, Dr RM Meenakshi Sundari, joint director at DMRHS, sought action against the two Teja Hospital doctors based on an inquiry conducted by a departmental team on February 19.
The inquiry report, submitted along with the letter, found that the child was in hypotensive shock leading to cardiac arrest, and held the treating doctors and staff nurses responsible for deficiencies in care. It noted that the staff’s failure to recognise warning signs on time amounted to clinical negligence, and failure to obtain a paediatrician’s opinion constituted medical negligence. “We conclude that the child’s death is due to gross medical negligence,” the report states.
TMC said it would review the DMRHS report and other medical documents and take a decision based on its findings.