Sahyadri Books Online Trivandrum.: 016. Are Our Women And Children Safe In Our Hospitals? P S Remesh Chandran

Friday, March 16, 2012

016. Are Our Women And Children Safe In Our Hospitals? P S Remesh Chandran

016

Are Our Women And Children Safe In Our Hospitals?

P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Image By Coco Parisienne, Pixabay. Graphics: Adobe SP

Doctors like to think that they have immunity against crimes they commit on human lives caused by their ignorance, negligence and dereliction. These true stories from India illustrates how unsafe the lives of our women and children are in our hospitals and how incapable and submissive governments are towards crimes committed in hospitals by the blue-collared in India.

World people's money squandered on opulence and luxuries.

Human Newborn. Will the World Allow to Live? By Ernest F.

World Health Organization extends assistance of millions of dollars of world people’s money each year to developing countries and under developed countries, but lets go unpardonable crimes committed with the opulence and lavishness of this world money. It is time the death of thousands of Indian mothers in simple PPS operations be investigated by international agencies. The sad and heart-rending pictures from the other Asian countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China also are not any different. It is true diseases attack us when we are left with no money in our pockets, but that is when jackals and hyenas in gowns demand us money for treating us in hospitals. The famous free hospital system of India is crushed down inch by inch by the rulers of India to please the greedy new generation body mechanics and the mammoth medical and health insurance companies they serve subserviently. When government brings changes in the health care sector they look whether the big medical and health insurance companies and drugs manufacturing companies would be pleased, not whether the poor patients of India would be pleased. The irony is it is these poor people who gave the government the mandate through elections to bring about these changes, not these conglomerates.

25000 Rupees for carrying an operating knife buried in the abdomen for 20 years.

Mother's love vast deep and limitless as the brine By Pozytyv.

News reports from Tamil Nadu in India say that the State Human Rights Commission there ordered the government to pay compensation of 25000 rupees to Coimbatore Veera Keralam Thentral Nagar-native Mohanraj’s wife Nandini. In 1989 she gave birth to a child at the Coimbatore government hospital after which she also underwent a Post Partum Surgery. Following this simple surgery which is done for birth control, she began to experience severe pain in her lower abdomen and sought treatment in a number of hospitals. After consuming a load of pain killers through the years, she was advised by Dr. Nandakumar of Coimbatore to scan her abdomen which she did. Presence of an operating knife in her lower abdomen was detected in the scan. The doctors of Coimbatore government hospital after a caesarian operation had closed her abdomen leaving an operating knife negligently there. The State Human Rights Commission registered a case based on a 2008 newspaper report, after 20 years of the incident. Even though 25000 Indian rupees, i.e. nearly 5000 dollars for carrying an operating knife for 20 years in one’s lower abdomen buried there by the insolent negligence of a government surgeon is a paltry sum, the goodwill of the Human Rights Commission of Tamil Nadu to order payment of compensation as token of admittance of a state crime against a woman of India is applaudable, though a very rare verdict in India where judges live in awe of doctors.

Murder of thousands of mothers in simple PPS operations by negligent psychopaths.

Maternal Affection Immortalized in Marble By Edward Hodges Baily 1788-1867.

It is primary responsibility of attending surgeons to count the number of articles that went in and taken out during a surgery. It is they who have to ensure that whatever has gone in have also been taken out. Do not anyone even think that the health services are a wild jungle. Everything is protocolled in advance. If something is left behind, it is someone’s responsibility. If death results as a consequence, it is plain murder. The Indian Law is such clear and plain, unless confused by authorities who wish to save the asses of their criminal darlings. If government does not take action, the government is accessory to that crime through its officers. The Constitution of India does not offer immunity to doctors against crimes resulting from their ignorance or negligence. The question is, whether the government has allowed the culprits to continue in their posts as surgeons and if already retired, whether the government would be willing and prepared to prosecute them and cut their pensions. Is the responsibility of government simply to pay compensations for the misdeeds and mistakes made by surgeons or to arrest and prosecute them for their crimes?

The above case is only one of nearly a million happened in Tamil Nadu. During the 1980s there was a feverish rush of PPS operations going on in almost all states of India, following the central government’s offering of handsome incentives to doctors, as part of national birth control activities. Hundred thousands of PPS operations were done then by incompetent doctors everywhere, not less than ten percent of them resulting in casualties such as those discussed here. Kerala was the number one state with the highest number of PPS operations done. Awards were given, merit certificates issued and money transferred. Kerala is considered perhaps the state with the highest literacy rate in India but the following incident would reveal that this higher literacy rate of any state in India does not make the killing of women and children in hospitals by ignorant, negligent and psychopathic doctors impossible to happen or punishable by practice in India.

One time bribe for male; each visit bribe for lady.

Not at all a burden. By Ton Smiers. Pixabay.

In 1984, a young lady named Shanta from Kurupuzha Village in Trivandrum District was admitted in the Nedumangadu Taluk Headquarters Hospital for delivery. She had no relatives except husband serving in the Middle East and a very old grandfather who stayed with her in the hospital. The two gynecologists, one male and the other female who worked in that hospital at that time, had only one difference between them. The male got satisfied with a one-time bribe. The female insisted on bribe each day she visited a patient or the patient was compelled to visit her. It will look and feel like we are in the Barbarian Ages as regard to hospitals in Kerala whether the state is ruled by the Congress Party or the Communist Party. The old man who accompanied her did not know anything about giving bribes to doctors to please them. He did not even know how to give bribes to doctors. So when the day of delivery arrived she gave birth to a healthy boy child in an ‘inevitable and indispensable’ caesarian operation. Following a PPS operation also, she was returned to her home. The very next day the patient was rushed back to the hospital following fits, which was unusual after ordinary, common simple PPS operations. So the patient with her nascent child was referred to the Sree Avittam Tirunal Hospital for Women & Children in the capital city of Trivandrum. It is to be noted that the two gynecologists who operated on her also accompanied her to the SAT hospital.

Blood-stained cotton mop discovered inside Peritonis membrane in the abdomen.

Mother posed, the child didn't. By Ian Riley Brentwood, USA.

The patient lying on the bed in the SAT Hospital would levitate and fall onto the floor as if picked up and thrown down there by some unknown hands. Even the skilled doctors at that prestigious institution could not diagnose the true cause of this symptom. Because she could not breast-feed her child, the baby died after 3 months. She lay there in the hospital for nine more months, after which she too succumbed to death. In normal cases hospital deaths won’t be subjected to post mortem examinations. But this being a unique case which had brain-teased the skilled doctors there for months, they decided to post-mortem operate and study it as a unique case. A months-old, blood-stained cotton mop was discovered from inside the Peritonis membrane of the abdomen. Human body’s involuntary effort and strain to oust this foreign body out was what was causing those fits. Think about the compensation that will have to be paid, in European standards. Even in the Asian standards, it will not come lower than Five hundred thousand rupees for two deaths with a single knife.

Had those two doctors who did the PPS confessed earlier or had even expressed even a doubt from the beginning as to any mistake that might have happened on their part, the patient would have been examined on the very first day for any hospital mistakes and any ignorance or negligence on the part of the surgeons, the cotton mop would have been detected and removed, and the patient and her child would have gone to their home alive and would have been living still today. Loss of two precious human lives to the greed and negligence of two insolent incompetent doctors! Had they been given the dreamed-about bribe by the ignorant old man before the surgery they would have cared. The two culprits were depending on the sure chance of a hospital death not going to be post-mortem examined. The SAT Hospital recorded Peritonitis as the cause of death in their Post-Mortem Report.

The two doctors were suspended from service because the doctors at the SAT hospital had clearly noted in their post-mortem report that it was a peritonis death. Without man’s involvement nothing will get into that sealed membrane. Can the woman lying under sedation there take a cotton mop herself and thrust it into her abdominal cavity and then sew it up herself. So the authorities in the person of the District Medical Officer of Trivandrum and the Director of Health Services, Kerala, finding no other way to rescue them from prosecution, dismissal and imprisonment, had to issue Show Cause Notices and Memo of Charges to both. Then government waited for a few months for the complainants and the local people to lose steam before the disciplinary proceedings could be set aside. The post-mortem report was concrete evidence which could not be bypassed and which would not be overlooked by any judicial court if it reached the prosecution level. So all evidence of they ever having been suspended were destroyed by the anti-governmental criminal gang in the DMO’s, DHS’ and the Health Secretary’s offices and the two doctors reinstated in service. All trace of records including the disciplinary action files vanished.

Did they even get into the central government’s Accountant General’s office to destroy the records there too?

In those days the post-mortem certificates in hospitals were kept in the book form with pages serially numbered and bound, the pages maintained in carbon copy triplicates- one immediately sent to the DMO, one immediately to the Judicial Court whether there was a case or not, and one in file. No tampering, manipulation or correction was possible without detection by police or criminal courts. It was at this exact time that the government, in the person of the health secretary, ordered the winding up of this book form and instructed the post-mortem certificates in health institutions to be maintained in the loose form! Meaningful, and useful indeed for the nefarious operations of a criminal gang of government officers! And in no time the twine were promoted to higher posts. But they forgot one thing. Only their service records were with the state government. Their salary payment records were with the Accountant General’s office under the control of the central government of India as they were Gazetted-Level Officers from where their Pay Slips for each month sent to the concerned state treasury. Their suspension orders and reinstatement orders in full (not abstracts) showing the reasons thereof are permanent records at the A. G’s office and treasury. Did they even get into the Accountant General’s Office and destroyed the records there too through their patronized employees’ organizations there?

Are governments to pay compensation for doctors’ follies with people’s money?

Mother and child face to face. By Robert Whitehead.

Every Peritonitis death will have a person responsible for it behind it. In all cases memo of charges will be issued, explanations received and accepted and the files will be closed at the right time for promotions. Media will withdraw from pursuing the case and will get other headlines. Complaints made by the relatives and natives of the deceased will come to nothing. Government will decline to interfere for fear of thousands and thousands of such other PPS deaths and hospital blunders coming to daylight and being investigated and prosecuted, resulting in payment of huge amounts as compensations. People normally fear to make complaints against doctors, as all know that doctors are closely associated with police officers in witnessing and evidencing medico-legal cases in judicial courts and in issuance of wound certificates and post-mortem certificates which the police always are in need of for pursuing many cases. They have become a very friendly lot and one will not betray the other. So people are reluctant to pursue complaints against doctors as a general rule. Doctors are licensed to practice till the end of their days where IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS officers in India have to retire at a fixed age. People’s representatives and legislators also know that they someday will lose their power and authority and will become sick and will have to be admitted in hospitals. That is why in India doctors have become answerable to no one for their crimes. Will anyone believe that the lady culprit in this crime mentioned eventually became director for the entire health service operations in the state?

There are other equally shocking and disturbing cases from the other states of India. In 2014 in Chhattisgarh 83 tubectomy operations were done on women taking just three and a half hours, with only one doctor and one nursing assistant attending, spending just two minutes per surgery, as it they were determined to break some world records, which left 11 women dead, 7 battling for life and 40 admitted in hospitals for shock and trauma from loss of blood. The same year in Mumbai in Maharashtra 83 sterilization surgeries were done on delivered women and 8 of them died and dozens of them were hospitalized for loss of blood. In Rajastan a doctor stole kidneys from patients and in Chhattisgurh it was wombs stolen by doctors. Without having spine to disciplinize these rogues the Indian health authorities still went to international health fund givers begging for funds! And there was this case in September 2014 at Payyannur Taluk Hospital in Kerala where the attending doctors captured child birth scenes in their costly mobile phones and circulated them in Whatts App for the world to see and enjoy. Police dropped the case after a few days’ farce investigation, saying proof could not be established (in this space age)! The Indian Medical Association defended and protected these ‘doctors’ (?). All just a few of the reported cases from the various Indian states in the year 2014 alone!

Because they have already been discussed in this author’s book, ‘WHO, IMF, IBRD And ADB Money To India Health Finances Human Rights Violations And Corruption’, the many other relevant cases are not repeatedly discussed here.

Toppling a world famous health infra structure by fake doctors.

Solacing each other, the eternal duo. By Charles West Cope 1875.

Justice M. P. Menon Commission that enquired into the fake university mark list cases in Kerala concluded their report by commenting that they had the opportunity to expose only a few of the fake doctors in Kerala and that thousands of them were continuing in the health services department as doctors, unquestioned and unexamined by anybody. The Commission expected that government would pursue what action the Honorable Commission could not undertake with their limited time and resources. Why government did not take any continued action was due to the majority of these fake doctors being sons and daughters of those higher officials, business men and industrial houses who run the state. The argument then had been that exposing and dismissing thousands of such doctors from health service would topple the health infrastructure in the state which was then being held in high esteem by even the W.H.O., but later developments in the state and Kerala’s later falling prey to indefensible serial fevers which claimed thousands of lives and incapacitated tens of thousands more, proved that the health infrastructure in the state had already been toppled by them.

Image By Eric Froehling, Pixabay. Graphics: Adobe SP.

First published: 23rd Apr 2011
Slightly edited: April 2020

Note: The images do not relate to the news or the incidents under reference.

Title Images Courtesy: Pixabay.

___________________________

Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
___________________________

Tags

Atrocities Against Women, Compensation For Women Deaths, Deaths From Treatment Mistakes, Health In India Kerala, Hospital Deaths, Human Rights Violations, P P S Deaths Asia, Women Deaths In India, W H O Funding, Women Mortality Safety,

FROM THE BOOK:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087D34RVM

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:

Author Profile Of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.