Quack held after 13-year-old boy dies in Tamil Nadu's Tirupattur
TIRUPATTUR: A quack, who was running a clinic in Nayancheru in Tirupattur district, was arrested after a 13-year-old boy died after he was treated for a fever. The victim was identified as C Surya Prakash, a Class 7 student of Natrampalli Ramakrishna Math. He lived in the school hostel.
The quack, M Gopinath (44), was arrested by Vaniyambadi police after investigations revealed that his qualification was limited to being a lab technician, and he was practising medicine without proper certification.
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On Monday evening, Surya Prakash was running a temperature and came home. On Tuesday, Surya's father, Chakkaravathy, took him to the clinic of Gopinath, where he injected Surya twice and sent him home. However, the boy's health deteriorated rapidly and his parents rushed him to Natrampalli Government Hospital on Wednesday morning. However, doctors at the hospital declared Surya dead on arrival.
The boy's grandmother, Yasodha, said, "On Monday evening, Surya came home and was active. I don't know what happened as he suddenly fell sick on Tuesday." Surya's parents said that their son had a medical history of seizures.
Tirupattur SP Albert John said, "We have registered an FIR for unnatural death under Sections 174, 419, 420 of CrPC and 304 Part 2 of IPC and have arrested Gopinath. An investigation is on against him."
When contacted by TNIE, Marimuthu, joint director of Tirupattur health department, said, "So far this year, 35 quacks have been arrested in the district. They are obtaining bail easily but we are determined to take stringent action against them."
Senthil Kumar, a doctor at a government hospital told TNIE, "Such cases of fever can easily be treated in government hospitals. The district administration is trying to track down the quacks by appointing a separate committee. The team must conduct inspections at clinics." After a postmortem examination, Surya's body was handed over to the family.