TIRUNELVELI: Parents of an eight-year-old boy have accused the doctors of Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TvMCH) of medical negligence, which resulted in the child’s death. In a petition submitted to the Collector on Monday, the couple alleged that their son was administered an injection meant for rabies, though he did not have the disease.
Speaking to the media, the boy’s mother, J Bhavani, a resident of Kokkirakulam, said her son Guru Prasad was neither bitten by a dog nor affected by rabies. While he was admitted with just throat pain on November 19, based on a scar on his body the doctors came to the conclusion that he was bitten by some animal.
“We later took him to a private hospital in Madurai. There the doctors said he did not have rabies. My son died because the TvMCH doctors wrongly administered medication meant for rabies,” said Bhavani. The boy was initially taken to the Melapalayam GH and was referred from there to the TvMCH.
“For hours, the TvMCH doctors did not tell us from what my son was suffering. They simply said he would die in about four hours. He was locked up in a rabies cell, and we were not given any report,” said Jayapandi, the boy’s hearing-impaired father. Unconvinced, the parents took him to the Aruppukottai GH, which referred him to Madurai.
‘Neurologist confirmed rabies’
There, the doctors and authorities referred them to the Madurai Rajaji Hospital. The parents instead took him to a private hospital, where he died on November 28. "We buried my son's body in our ancestral village of Nedunkulam in Ramanathapuram district. Health officials from Paramakudi checked the reports provided by the private hospital at Madurai and allowed us to bury the body," Jayapandi said. However, TvMCH dean M Ravichandran insisted that the boy had rabies.
"The boy, Prasad, had rabies when he was brought to the hospital. His parents took him away from here forcefully early November 20. I verified his case sheet. Our pediatrician confirmed rabies only after getting an opinion from a neurologist," said the dean. On being asked how the health officials allowed the parents to bury the body instead of cremating it, as is the protocol in the case of rabies, Ravichandran said, "The decision on burial might have been taken due to the lack of staff strength in the Health Department to cremate the body."
‘Docs cited scar to confirm rabies’
The boy’s mother said her son did not have rabies and the doctors arrived at a conclusion based on a scar on the body.