GMC has no regret for burning a mother
In any other country, the health authorities would have been taken to the cleaners and made to pay- in hard cash- if doctors of a premier government hospital had burnt a woman while she was undergoing a caesarian operation. In Goa though, in a shocking exposition of utmost cruelty, the government is not only trying to underplay the incident but has no sign of remorse, for almost killing an expectant mother and her yet to be born baby.
This ghastly incident would have gone completely unnoticed with the election festival on and the government in a complete limbo, if Herald hadn’t unearthed this. But before we interpret what happened, it is critical to understand the basics. This is not just about whether a key surgical instrument used during the caesarian procedure caught a spark due to a short circuit or whether the baby and the mother were saved despite the mother suffering burns. This is simply about humaneness. If the stomach of a mother undergoing a caesarian operation is burnt with her baby inside her, it is serious. It doesn’t matter in the least bit if a sham of an inquiry finds no one responsible. What matters is whether anyone in the GMC had the sense of duty and the heart to ensure that the institution made up by ensuring not only top class treatment but also take guarantee for all future treatment for the mother and baby, if required, in any health facility .
The Dean and the Health minister should have been quick to acknowledge the incident, express regret, make the full facts of the case public, hold persons accountable and announce not just compensation but compete financial support to the victim. Believe us, this would have cost less than perhaps a weeks personal expenses of the Health Minister.
Instead what did the GMC do? It began by trying to pretend that the incident did not happen at all, with doctors refusing to confirm it to the Herald reporter. It then initiated an inquiry whose findings were hilarious, though humour is the last sentiment that can be associated with this inhuman act. The inquiry mentioned that the cause of the spark that caused the surgical instrument to catch fire was not known and secondly no one can be blamed for this. So honestly what is the inquiry report saying. It simply says “We don’t know and can’t be blamed for not knowing” . The farce gets worse. This logic has actually been bought and the issue has been quire effectively settled.
But we sorry to inform the GMC and its power hungry health minister, that we will not let this incident or this story be killed. We will ask questions and we will demand answers. Here is a sample and we promise there will be more. 1 There have been several demands and recommendations that old and faulty equipment in the Operation Theaters of the GMC be changed and new ones bought. Has there been an instrument and equipment audit in the GMC and if yes where is the audit report? 2.When was the last comprehensive exercise done to identify the equipment need, following the audit report and new equipment bought? 3.How often does the GMC do a sanitization of all its operation theatres to ensure that they comply with the stringent standards laid down under the concerned act or stature? 4 If there is an accident in the OT, what is the laid down drill to be followed? Is there a drill at all? 5. Does the government have any policy of compensating patients in any manner if it has caused injury, hurt or death due to its own negligence?
This is nothing but criminal negligence. It is as serious as the recent fire at the AMRI hospital in Calcutta were over a hundred people died when the hospital caught fire. The State government was quick to press charges and the directors of the hospital surrendered and were sent to jail the very next day. Why shouldn’t the same yardstick be followed when a government hospital in Goa displays such negligence? This is a serious enough case for doctors and hospital staff to be booked for negligence. But why does the government get away here? It does because we allow it to. Even the relatives of the woman who got burnt are too scared to utter a word against the government. And that suits the GMC and the health minister.
While our interest in the story and our demand for accountability may be dismissed on the ground that the incident is not serious, we ask “ Does it take for a patient to die for the government to call this serious?”
