By Shankar Raj*
Thiruvananthapuram: In a case of medical negligence, doctors at the Institute of Maternal and Child Health (IMCH) attached to the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode performed a surgery on the tongue of a 4-year-old girl instead of removing her sixth finger (polydactyly).
The parents of the girl had brought her to the hospital yesterday for surgically removing the sixth finger as it was getting inconvenient as it was getting tangled in various objects.
The girl, hailing from Madhura Bazar near Cheruvannur in Kozhikode, was admitted to the paediatric minor operation theatre at 9.30 am. Thirty minutes later she was brought outside the theatre with cotton rolls placed in her mouth, when relatives noticed that the additional finger was still intact. After relatives pointed this out, she was again taken to the theatre and the extra finger removed. She was shifted to the ward later.
The doctors tried to cover up their mistake saying that there was an issue with the child’s tongue. The surgeon’s explanation was that the child had a minor tongue tie (a condition of a tight band of tissue connecting the underside of tongue to floor of the mouth hampering its free movement) and the surgery was done to correct that without the parents’ consent.
The girl’s father said she did not have any problem with her tongue. “We had gone to the medical college the other day and carried out the tests; we were asked to come for surgery today. A hospital staffer took her to the operation theatre after her name was called. When she was brought back from the OT, the nurse told us to stay in the observation room for two hours and then come back. There was blood in the cotton roll placed in her mouth and when we asked about it, the nurse said the surgery was done on her tongue. When we spoke to the doctor, though he initially did not admit, later he realized the mistake as we had documents, including the scanning report,” he said.
The father said the doctor gave it in writing that the tongue surgery was done without their consent after they insisted that they would not leave the hospital without it. “…How can they do the surgery without our consent? It was their mistake and they have come up with this justification to hide their lapse,” he said. The girl’s uncle said there was also a claim that it was a case of mistaken identity as there was another girl whose surgery was also scheduled. “We don’t know whether the tongue operation would lead to any health issues in future… Such a predicament should not happen to any other child,” he said.
Initially the parents were told not to file a complaint, but the family stated their intention to lodge a complaint with the police, seeking action against those responsible for the horrific error.
“No one should have such an experience again at the Medical College Hospital,” the child’s family said.
The hospital authorities, meanwhile, said the surgeon informed them that the girl had a tongue tie and it was noticed in the operation theatre, following which the procedure was carried out. They said it was not an instance of mistaken identity as two girls of the same age group were brought in for different surgeries.
IMCH superintendent Dr Arun Preeth said in his preliminary report that there was a lapse on the part of the surgeon in not taking the consent of the girl’s parents for the tongue-tie surgery.
Associate professor Dr Bejohn Johnson, who performed the botched surgery, was suspended from service on the basis of a preliminary report submitted by the director of medical education to health minister Veena George. She has also asked the DME to conduct a detailed probe and take appropriate action.
Police have also registered a case on the parents’ complaint under IPC Sections 336 and 337, pertaining to endangering human life or personal safety of others by a rash and negligent act.
This is not an isolated case of medical negligence. In November 2017, forceps were left behind inside a woman, Harshina of Adivaram, during a C-section surgery at the hospital, leading to an uproar. The forceps were surgically removed in September 2022 and police filed a chargesheet against two doctors and two nurses in December 2023.
*Shankar Raj is a former editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
