Kundapur, September 16: A case of utter negligence reportedly by doctors at a nursing home here, a piece of cloth was found inside the body of a woman who went there for delivery of her second child. It is alleged that even after the cloth was found inside her uterus during the scanning, the doctors had failed to inform the same to her family. The matter, however, came to light only three months later, when she developed complications. When the incident, came to light, the woman’s family members and other locals gathered and raged a protest in front of Sri Devi Nursing Home where she had been admitted earlier for Caesarian operation.
Sulochana Shetty (31), a resident of Shanady in Kedur, was admitted to Sri Devi Nursing Home on June 24th for the delivery of her second child. Dr Bhavani performed the Caesarian and family planning procedures as well on Sulochana.
Sulochana was then discharged from the nursing home on July 7th, but she continued to experience intense pain in the abdominal part. She also had continuous bleeding. She then went to Vikram Scanning Centre, but allegedly, the staff there refused to give her the scanning report and said it would be directly handed over to her doctors. When she returned to the hospital, she was told that she has to undergo another minor surgery.
It is further reported that, though the patient grew worried and anxious and demanded to know the reason behind the second surgery, she was denied the information. Her husband Arun Kumar then took her to Bangalore for treatment, where he is employed, and a scanning report showed that there was nothing wrong with her.
However, the bleeding did not stop even after a month and the severe pain too continued. She then got admitted to St John’s Hospital in Bangalore and during the CT scan, it came to light that a piece of cloth measuring 4.5 x 2.5 cm was present in her uterus. She was immediately operated upon at a cost of Rs 2 lakhs and the cloth was removed. Another surgery was done to sew up the wounds that had resulted because of the cloth being left in the body.
On Tuesday September 16th, her family members and locals who came to know about the incident alleged that scanning centre in Kundapur and higher officials of the nursing had tried to cover up their doctor’s negligence and thus risked the patient’s life, besides subjecting her to agony.
The Cops arrived at the spot and brought the situation under control.
Speaking to reporters, the patient’s husband Arun Kumar said, “Due to doctor’s negligence my wife has been put through so much torture. The doctor did not even perform family planning procedure even though we paid for it. Even after the presence of a piece of cloth was traced after scanning, they did not inform us and instead tried to cover up. Who would be responsible if something had happened to my wife?”
Meanwhile, Dr Ravindra Shetty, senior doctor and owner of the nursing home, said that it was an unintentional mistake that happened without anyone’s knowlege. “We admit our mistake. There is none who does not commit mistakes. We will take extra care here after to ensure that such mistakes do not repeat in future”.
A plaint has been registered with the police and also with the consumer forum.
