A seven year old girl from TRICHUR was admitted for squint correction in a famous teaching hospital in Cochin.
After pre anaesthetic medication she was taken to theatre for conducting the surgery. During induction of anaesthesia cardiac arrest occur ed. She was revived & again on induction she died on the table. Death was declared only by 1800hrs in the evening. Till that time she was put on ventilator& nothing was reveled to the relatives till evening. The body was brought for autopsy at Trichur Medical college,the next day. During autopsy I was not able to make out any surgical incision in the affected eye. As per IP case records surgery was completed?WHAT A CONTRADICTION!!. Even though by autopsy I was not able to make out anything except petechiae of internal organs with congestion; by histopathologiacl examination of internal organs reveled the existence of allergic reaction. Opinion as to cause of death was given as due to inhalation of anaesthetic gas after getting histopathological opinion from Pathologist. Later on from the investigating officer it was known that there was only one anaesthesiologist looking after 09 or 10 operation table. In that case thereis no wonder for this incident to occur. The concerned lady ophthalmicsurgeon from north India returned back to her native place.
In order to bring out the role of negligence of the doctor concerned as routine procedure;a meeting was convened by Eranakulam DMO, the medical boardconsisting of DMO,Superintendent of Police,Ernakulam,Public Prosecutor Ernakulam & Police surgeon from Alleppey Medical college. The opinion given by the police surgeon was " NO EVIDENCE OF ANAPHYLATIC REACTION". Later on I happened to meet the concerned & asked why such an opinion was given."The answer was I did not read the post-mortem certificate issued by You". This shows the motive of the concerned to safe guard the interest of the particular teaching Institution.The surgeons are having a feeling that in the event of death of a person in the operation table;if the matter is not disclosed to the relatives by them at that moment ,it will not be known to the concerned. They are forgetting about other theater staff working along with them. Another disgusting fact is that hooking up of case records in the event of death of the person. They are forgetting the doctrine"RES IPSA LOQUITOR"
