Tamil Nadu: 13-year-old girl dies after tonsil surgery, parents demand investigation
Vellore: In another case of medical negligence, a 13-year-old girl lost her life after undergoing a tonsil surgery on Saturday. The family of Monisa filed a police complaint on Sunday against the doctors of a Vellore hospital alleging laxity on the part of doctors, according to media reports.
Monisa's parents have demanded an autopsy report and the Vollore Taluk Police have launched an investigation after registering a case under section 174 of CrPC.
Monisa was admitted to the hospital on June 13 after she complained about pain while swallowing. The doctors at the ENT department decided to operate on her to remove the tonsils after examining her.
She was taken into surgery at 9 am and by 12.45 pm, the parents were informed that she died. "My daughter was taken for the surgery on Saturday morning. Before leaving, she told me not to worry about her. She also asked me to get her ice cream after she returns from the surgery," the girl's mother said.
"At about 11 am, a person came out of the operation theatre and showed me two pieces of skin (tonsil) and said that they were removed from my daughter's throat. At 12.30 pm, I was told that my daughter was in a critical condition. She was shifted to ICU after the surgery. Within 10 minutes, they told me that my daughter died," the mother added.
After her death, the parents decided against a post-mortem and were ready to receive Monisa's body. However, after inspecting the papers, a relative grew suspicious over her death, because the documents stated that she had died on 2.15 pm on Friday, a day before the surgery.
Meanwhile, the dean of the hospital also said that Monisa's cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest due to bronchospasm (trouble in breathing), which was not the case.
The parents then decided to shift her body back to the hospital for an autopsy.
"The police told us that the post-mortem was done today (Sunday) and it was video graphed to avoid unnecessary problems. It will be sent into forensic analysis to ascertain the cause of the death," said Monisa's relative.
