Doctors question shifting patient to Singapore

The decision to airlift the 23-year-old gang-rape victim to Singapore has kicked up a  controversy with some leading doctors questioning the move even as the government was at pains to assert it was a decision taken after consulting specialists.

Some doctors told Deccan Herald that the decision to shift the victim, who was battling for life and whose condition was described as “extremely critical,” out of the country, seemed more of a political decision than medical exigencies.

Senior doctors at Safdarjung Hospital, where she was admitted on December 16, declined to go on record but insisted that she was sent to Singapore “purely for medical reasons.”

The government rejected that it was a political decision as Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid stressed that it was a decision taken by the government after consulting the doctors.

The victim suffered cardiac arrythmia—a sudden drop in her heart rate—on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, the doctors at Safdarjung Hospital said. A leading private heart surgeon was also said to have been consulted and a decision taken on Wednesday morning to shift her out. The External Affairs Ministry was asked to prepare passports and process visas for the victim and her parents. The patient was flown out of Delhi at 11:30 pm on Wednesday. The medical bulletin from Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where she has been admitted, has been depressing both on Thursday and Friday.

Medical expert Samiran Nundy at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, remarked: “It is unusual to transfer the girl from Delhi to Singapore when the patient has suffered a cardiac arrest.”

“My suggestion would have been to stabilise her in India and get her out of the crisis; then do her intestinal transplant later. One cannot think about intestinal transplant at this moment. First, the infection spreading in her should be stopped, then one can think about transplant,” he told a news agency. According to him, in case of intestinal transplant, chances of survival are five years in 60 per cent of cases, and one year in 80 per cent.

Some leading doctors were of the view that it was wrong to shift a patient when “her infection is spreading.” Also, shifting a patient within hours of cardiac arrest is just not done. “I would not have advised airlifting of the patient in such a condition. Also, Safdarjung Hospital has amongst the best facilities to treat any patient.”

Said another trauma care specialist: “The very fact that in such a critical condition she underwent three surgeries, that infection was spreading and that she had cardiac arrest were reasons enough against taking such a decision,” he said describing the move as drastic.