THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami seeking a probe into an incident in which the internal organs of a youth who was declared brain-dead in an accident were removed by a private hospital authorities without the family’s consent.
The CM also sought expert treatment for three persons who were admitted to the hospital. According to a complaint submitted to the CM by the family of Manikandan of Meenakshipuram in Palakkad, the youth and others met with an accident near Killikurishi while returning from Chennai. Seven injured, including the driver of the vehicle, were then admitted to a nearby government hospital and later they were shifted to Vinayaka Super Specialty Hospital, which is 120 km away from the area, for advanced treatment. However, Manikandan was declared brain-dead by the hospital authorities on Tuesday.
The hospital authorities who shifted Manikandan to ventilator then sought `3 lakh as medical expenses and `25,000 more as ambulance charge to take the body to victim’s house at Meenakshipuram. As the relatives who were present at the hospital didn’t have the money required to pay the bill, the hospital authorities made them sign on some bills and documents and later removed the internal organs of the victim without their consent. The family of the victim was also not given any postmortem report or any other documents. The Tamil government should probe the gruesome unethical practice which cannot be justified by medical science, said the Chief Minister.