Kochi: K.A. Abootty, father of medico Shamna Tasnim who collapsed and died following the administering of an antibiotic injection at Ernakulam Government Medical College (EMC), has petitioned the Chairman of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) seeking justice which has been delayed two and a half months after her death. He has named the State of Kerala represented by Chief Secretary, Health Secretary, DME, Principal EMC, DMO Ernakulam, DGP and city police commissioner as respondents.
Mr Abootty said that he was petitioning the SHRC as the two probes constituted by the police and the government, had failed. Though the three-member team headed by the Joint Director of Medical Education (JDME) collected evidence from the college, the state government had not taken any action on the report submitted by the JDME, he said.
He also pointed out that there was inordinate delay in constituting the medical board under the DMO as part of the police investigation. He added that his request to include experts from other medical colleges and not from the General Hospital as invitees on the medical panel was also not considered by the DMO. In his petition, he said that the people who were under a cloud over her “unnatural” death had once served in the General Hospital.
“Despite meeting the gealth mnister several times and the Chief Minister twice alleging that medical negligence had led to my daughter’s death, no step has been taken to provide me justice. She who came with fever to EMC was given an antibiotic injection which many doctors said was not needed. She died following it. The family thought our daughter was secure in the hands of the medical college authorities. Despite students saying that she had died at the medical college itself, to escape responsibility, she was shifted to a private hospital. Such a fate should not visit any other student of a medical college or her parents,” Abootty said in his petition.
