Updated: October 20, 2020 7:17:45 am
After the audio clip circulated on social media, the patient’s family, TK Haris, approached the police seeking action against the alleged negligence that led to the patient’s death on July 30.
A nursing official at a government medical school in Kochi was suspended after an audio clip, sent by the officer to her colleagues before the core team visit, revealed that a patient died gasping for oxygen and several others they could have died from negligence. inside the Covid ward of the hospital.
After the audio clip circulated on social media, the patient’s family, TK Haris, approached police seeking action against the alleged negligence that led to the patient’s death on July 30. The director of medical education investigated the incident at the behest of Kerala Health. Minister KK Shailaja and suspended nurse Jalaja Devi.
Kerala’s Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, said the problem is “serious” and “would damage the image of the state’s health sector.”
On Saturday, Devi sent a voice message on a WhatsApp group that included her nurses before the visit from the core team. “Today some physicians reported that oxygen masks were not properly fitted in many patients. The masks were found displaced, not tight to the face. Ventilation tubes must be seen if they are inserted correctly into the nostrils. Doctors have reported that due to our negligence, many patients have lost their lives. Unfortunately, if we get caught, that would become a major problem. One patient, Haris… the ventilator tube was found not to be inserted into the nostril. In fact, he was in a position to stop receiving respiratory assistance … His relatives have complained of the death. But the doctors haven’t revealed anything to protect us. Otherwise things would have become a big problem. “
However, the superintendent of the medical school, Dr. Peter Vazhayil, said that the nursing officer’s statement was unfounded. The patient was on a non-invasive ventilator in which the breathing tube was not disconnected, he said.
In another incident of alleged negligence, it took three days for information about the death of a Covid patient to reach his family members in the Kollam district.
Sulaiman Kunju (82) from Thalavur village in Kollam was transferred to a Covid treatment center after testing positive last month. His family was later told that he was transferred to the medical school hospital; the family thought he was in Kollam hospital, but Kunju was actually transferred to Thiruvananthapuram. They received a call on October 16, saying that the patient would be discharged, but when Kunju’s son, Noushad, visited the hospital, he discovered it was someone else with the same name. The family’s search for Kunju led them to the Thiruvananthap-uram hospital morgue, where he was tagged as an unidentified body after his death on October 13.
Kollam District Medical Officer VV Sherly said Kunju was taken to Thiruvananthapuram for better care and authorities had informed his family, who may have misunderstood the location.
However, Noushad said. “I had delivered food to him in Kollam. The staff collected the food, but I never knew that my father was not being treated there. They always informed me that my father was improving, ”he said.
The DMO said: “If that’s true, it was really sad and painful. But medical school officials have denied picking up food from him. “
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