VARANASI: In a case of gross medical negligence, a 71-year-old woman, who had to undergo surgery for spinal tumour was instead partially operated upon by orthopaedic doctors of BHU trauma centre following misidentification of patients. Radhika Devi was wheeled into the operation theatre in place of another patient, 82-year-old Radhika Singh, who had been admitted for hip replacement surgery.Once the surgeons realised their mistake, they packed Radhika Devi’s incisions and sent her back to the ward without informing her family. The surgery was done on March 7. The woman was finally operated for spinal tumour on March 18, but she developed a number of complications after the surgery and passed away on March 28.On March 18, Ballia’s Radhika Devi was operated on for her actual ailment by doctors of the neuro department. However, she multiple surgeries and the mental trauma suffered by herThe gross negligence of the nursing staff and doctors came to light when the deceased woman’s grandson, Mrityunjay Pal, submitted a complaint with the director of Institute of Medical Science, BHU, Prof SN Sankhwar. After it, a report from the in-charge of trauma centre, BHU Prof Saurabh Singh, was sought. A four-member committee was formed under the same doctor of the orthopaedic department whose team had performed the surgical procedure on Radhika on March 7. After Pal raised objection over it, the committee’s chairman was changed.Prof Sankhwar told TOI on Wednesday that the chairman of the committee has been replaced to ensure a fair investigation. For more details, he put the ball into the court of trauma centre in-charge, who mentioned that he submitted his report to the authorities concerned. The trauma centre in-charge denied providing further details, mentioning the committee’s investigation was in progress.But the records show that orthopaedic department patient Radhika Singh, 82, was on bed number 17 of the orthopaedic department and Ballia’s Radhika Devi, 71, was on bed number 29 of the neuro department. On March 7, the incident of patient misidentification and wrong patient was wheeled into OT.After giving anaesthesia, the surgical team started Radhika Devi’s surgery on March 7. But when the senior resident failed to detect the complication, which Radhika Singh had suffered ,at the operative site, he and other staff alerted the treating senior doctor for further assessment. In the meantime, the nursing staff informed them that the wrong patient had been brought to the operation theatre. Thereafter, doctors stopped further surgery and sent back Radhika Devi to the ward.The centre sources said that investigation done so far exposed how surgery teams in many departments overlook patient identification protocol.
