Even as the indefinite ‘satyagraha’ staged by Adivaram native K.K. Harshina outside the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, seeking justice in her alleged botched C-Section surgery case will complete three months on Tuesday, Health Minister Veena George has said that the ongoing police probe into Ms. Harshina’s allegations is based on her department’s directive.
Ms. George told the media here on Monday that how a surgical instrument was left behind in Ms. Harshina’s abdomen should be found out. “We need to identify the culprits. They should be brought to book. Action will be initiated against them. There is no dispute on that,” the Minister pointed out.
Ms. George claimed that the decision to institute a police probe into the case was taken after two rounds of inquiries by the Health department failed to yield proper results. She said that the outcomes in both the investigations had not been satisfactory. Ms. George refuted allegations that attempts were being made to scuttle the probe.
The Health Minister’s statements come against the backdrop of a district medical board in Kozhikode dismissing the police finding that the surgical instrument, an artery forceps, must have been left behind in Ms. Harshina’s body during the surgery conducted at the medical college hospital in 2017. Ms. Harshina had earlier undergone C-Section surgeries in 2012 and 2016 at the Government Taluk Hospital, Thamarassery. The authorities at the medical college hospital are reportedly claiming that the lapse must have happened during those procedures. The police, however, are pointing out that nothing unusual was found during an MRI scan Ms. Harshina had undergone at a private hospital in Kollam in early 2017, before her C-Section surgery.
Doctors in the medical board reportedly said that just based on an MRI report, a medical negligence case such as this cannot be proved. Ms. Harshina had to live with the instrument in her stomach for five years before it was removed through another surgery in 2022.
Now, an appeal has been filed with the State medical board against the decision of the district board. The medical college police are continuing its probe into the case as they are in the course of recording the statements of the medical staff who were on duty during the procedure. It is learnt that the police are collecting technical details from the scanning equipment manufacturers as well. Members of the district medical board too are being questioned based on Ms. Harshina’s complaint that there had been an attempt to influence their decision.
