21-year-old man dies after taking injection in Coimbatore, unregistered medico under scanner
COIMBATORE: The district health department and police launched a probe against an unregistered medical practitioner at Senjeri village near Sultanpet following complaint that a 21-year-old youth who was given an injection by him for abdomen pain died on Saturday.
After conducting an investigation on Sunday, the joint director of health services Coimbatore district NN Rajasekaran said the suspect was not registered with the Medical Council of India (MCI). Rajasekaran said the suspect had completed MBBS in Georgia in 2022. However, he has yet to clear MCI’s screening test (Foreign Medical Graduate Examination) which is mandatory to practise in India. Also, he did not receive approval from the Tamil Nadu Medical Council.
The issue came to light after K Prabhu (21), a driver from Senjeri village who suffered abdomen pain, visited a clinic attached to a pharmacy run by Paul Jayaseelan in the village on Saturday afternoon.
Jayaseelan’s son Victor Jeevarathinam (30), who had completed MBBS in Georgia, Eastern Europe, allegedly administered Ranitidine and Dicyclomine injection to Prabhu around 12.50 pm. Prabhu collapsed within an hour after returning home. His family rushed him to a nearby private hospital, but he was declared dead.
As he died soon after treatment by Victor, Prabhu’s family staged a protest at ESI hospital where the body was sent for postmortem. Sultanpet police booked a case under section 194 (unnatural death) of the BNSS and sought the health department’s help in verifying the treatment. The post mortem result is expected on Monday.
On Sunday, JDHS inspected the clinic and found out that Victor has been using the letterhead of Dr Shan Jeevanesan who was practising there earlier.
Sources said Paul Jayaseelan runs a pharmacy registered in his wife’s name and have a five-bed clinic attached. Shan Jeevanesan, a doctor from Kotagiri, used to run the clinic. But he vacated the place six months ago. Since then, Victor has been prescribing medicines on his letterhead .
“The locals did not suspect him as everyone knew Jayaseelan’s two sons studied MBBS in Georgia and did not know they lacked MCI approval. The younger son cleared FMGE and has applied to run a clinic under the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act. Victor is the elder son. The suspect has admitted to the violations,” health department sources said.
The health department will submit its report to police on Monday based on which action will be taken against Victor.