Chennai: A 46-year-old woman undergoing weight loss surgery at a city hospital died during the early hours of Saturday. Family members filed a police complaint alleging medical negligence. Following the woman’s death, the state government announced that a two-member team has been formed by Director of Medical services, Dr P.Banu, to ascertain the cause of the death.
A.Valarmathi, a native of Keezhnaachipatti village in Tiruvannamalai district, was weighing over 160 kg and was undergoing bariatric surgery at the Lifeline Institute of Minimal Access in Kilpauk for the past one month.
Her three children, Saranya, Sangeetha and Satish too underwent the same surgery at the hospital. “We came for obesity treatment for my wife. Doctors said that they will do weight loss surgery for four in our family. They said that we do not have to bear all the costs and just have to pose for photographs before and after the surgery,” said Alagesan, Valarmathi’s husband.
The family said that they have spent Rs 2.5 lakh so far on medicines and other consultations. The entire family depended on the earnings of Valarmathi’s son, Satish, an auto driver.
The four obese members of the family were offered consultation on July 27 and underwent bariartic surgery on August 28, according to the hospital. However, Valarmathi started developing complications and nine surgeries were conducted on the woman to treat her complications for the next 27 days.
After the most recent surgery, the woman died around 1 am on Saturday sending family members into a tizzy. “No one should do weight loss surgery,” A. Sangeetha, youngest daughter of the woman who had also underwent the surgery, said. Sangeetha claimed that no person from the hospital came to meet them. “We got specialist doctors who treated late CM, J. Jayalalithaa to treat her. Despite their best efforts, we couldn’t save her,” Valarmathi’s son, Satish quoted the doctors as saying. Later in the day, the family approached the Kilpauk police station with a complaint of medical negligence.
Police registered a case under section 174 of CrPC (suspicious death). The body was moved to the Government hospital for autopsy.
“Our nodal officers are taking charge of the case sheet. Probe is on and we will take action if the death was due to negligence,” Dr Banu, Director of Medical Services, said.
Hospital reacts
Expressing sadness at the death, the hospital termed the incident unfortunate and responded to the allegations of medical negligence. According to Dr J S Rajkumar, Lifeline Institute of Minimal Access, she (Valarmathi) was given treatment according to international protocols. All the procedures were done under the CM government health scheme and a large amount of money ('6-8 lakh) was spent by the foundation attached to the hospital and by another donor, in order to help this family. Despite efforts in the post-operative period, her lungs progressively went into Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a release from the doctor read.
“There was no ad hoc treatment given at any point of the time. Throughout her 27-day treatment, 18 specialists attending kept her husband and children informed about what was happening to her,” Dr Rajkumar said in an official statement.
It further added that hospital authorities are confident that the post mortem report will prove that there was no medical negligence.
