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FIR filed against 2 Mumbai doctors for leaving a surgical mop in body of a patient

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Nitasha Natu    08 March 2021

An FIR has been registered against two gynaecologists for medical negligence of leaving a surgical mop within the body of a patient while performing a hysterectomy on her, almost two years after the death of a Malad woman. 

The FIR has been registered by Dindoshi police and was supported by a report by experts of Grant Government Medical College. The woman’s relatives stated that the last two years were a “nightmare” and have exhausted their savings by running from pillar to post to urge redressal.

Ganga Sen, aged 45 years, was living in Malad together with her husband and children. In January 2019, she experienced severe menstrual bleeding and her doctor referred her to Jeevan Maternity Hospital in Malad. Dr Sarina Relan and Dr Ramesh Relan performed the hysterectomy on her with their team, on 13th January’ 19. Ganga complained of abdominal pain even after being discharged from the hospital. Her son, Rahul, then took her back to get examined by Dr Sarina, but she was told that she would experience for some time and slowly would recover. She was given antibiotics by Dr Sarina but the pain never went. 

In the meantime, Rahul’s wedding was arranged at their hometown in Rajasthan. The family travelled to Udaipur but Ganga’s condition was getting worse. They did another visit to a physician and he prescribed more antibiotics that also didn’t help. On 6th May’19, Ganga was wheeled into J K Hospital at Udaipur as she developed a fever and started to vomit. A CT scan was done and it revealed a surgical mop inside her body.

According to her son, she underwent a surgery that was video-graphed. Doctors took out the surgical mop and told them about the amount of spread of the infection. Ganga spent more than two months in different hospitals as the family struggled to manage the medical bills. On 26th July’ 19, Ganga died at home only.

Her son, Rahul had given a complaint to the police before her death. All documents are sent to an experts’ panel at Grant Medical College. Investigating officer Amol Shinde said that if the panel finds that a doctor is negligent, then only an FIR will be registered. Rahul had made almost 50 trips in the last two years to the court, the police station and also to Grant Medical College for redressal. He was told at the medical college that there were a huge number of pending cases.

Rahul, who is working in a bank as a peon, moved to Virar with his wife due to out of funds. His father and sisters are in Rajasthan. After the experts gave a report stating the gynaecologists were negligent, the police registered an FIR on 1st March. The report also mentioned that on a separate occasion, a surgical mop was left in the body of another patient at the same hospital and was reported in TOI in 2008.

Advocate Tanya Jha, who is representing the Sens said that there is a necessity for courts to instruct the administration to make appropriate guidelines related to medical negligence cases. The experts’ panel should add a judicial member in addition to doctors, so that it would bring transparency to the whole process. The police have not done any arrest yet, hence they will approach the Bombay high court with a PIL (public interest litigation) for immediate disposal case.

Source: ET Healthworld

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