Medical report clears doctors of medical negligence in Murugan death case

Thiruvanthapuram: The medical board set up to look into the alleged medical negligence by doctors leading to the death of Murugan, a Tirunelveli native, last year, has given a clean chit to all of them. Murugan, who succumbed to injuries in a motorcycle accident at Chathannoor, on 7^th August 2017 was brain dead when he was brought to the hospital, said the report of the medical board appointed by the health department. It further stated that no lapse had been committed by any of the attending doctors. Therefore, the earlier reports accusing them of responsibility were false.

Murugan is believed to have been kept waiting for 8 hours. Outside hospitals in an ambulance seeking treatment. The state government to come clean on allegations had to constitute a medical board in November to inquire into the alleged lapses on the part of doctors in the death of the Tamil Nadu native following denial of treatment by various hospitals.

The four-member medical board was assigned the task of probing whether the six doctors being accused of lapses were actually guilty of them. According to the report, Murgan's GCS score was three (the lowest possible score) at KIMS Hospital, Kottiyam, itself, where he had been stabilized initially.(Glasgow Coma Scale describes the general level of consciousness in patients with traumatic brain injury. A GCS score of 8 or less defines a severe head injury). The report further revealed that there was no ventilator to admit him. And the "free or vacant ventilators" were, on standby for patients in surgery or in the ICUs.

The report speaks of a procedural lapse on the part of duty doctors who did not register details of him in the medical records when brought to the hospital. It was a procedural lapse. Terming "lack of documentation" by the resident doctors, as not the same as medical negligence.

The report stated that though the doctors had examined the patient, the fact an OP ticket had not been taken in the name of the patient could be held against the doctor concerned.The health secretary in this regard had asked for an explanation from Dr V. Sreekanth and junior resident doctor Patrick Paul, the two doctors on duty at the time when Murugan was brought to the hospital.

Another point raised in the report is of Dr Patrick along with the duty nurse having examined Murugan in the ambulance but not registering it in the hospital records reports Deccan Chronicle.

The medical board comprises of a neurosurgeon, Dr P K Balakrishnan from Kottayam Medical College, surgeon, Dr M P Sasi from Kozhikode Medical College and anaesthetists, Dr A Sobha and Dr G Maya, from Kottayam and Thrissur Medical Colleges, respectively. The doctors against whom culpable homicide charges have been pressed include two from Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, two from Azeezia Medical College, Kollam, and one doctor each from Travancore Medicity, Kollam and Meditrina Hospital, Kollam.

In an earlier report done by the Medical Dialogues team it was reported that the The Directorate of Medical Education(DME), had been directed by the government to seek an explanation from the two doctors who attended to Murugan, a migrant labourer in the casualty wing, when he was brought into the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in August last year.

Murugan was driven into the MCH casualty from Kollam, as several private hospitals there had refused to take him in for further treatment saying that they did not have free ventilators to provide life support to him

Read also: Govt reopens Murugan Medical negligence case with DME, two doctors questioned
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