JOIN USThe Medical Council of India (MCI) has deleted the name of Dr Ramcharan Thiagarajan, a transplant surgeon with Fortis Hospital, from the Indian Medical Register and the Register of State Medical Council for a year, on charge of medical negligence.
Members of the ethics committee at a meeting on October 27, 2012, decided to act against the surgeon. Based on the appeal filed by Pankaj Rai, husband of Seema Rai, who died of alleged medical negligence, the ethics committee found the Fortis Hospital did not have a permission to perform pancreas transplant surgery. The hospital authority also failed to procure informed consent for the surgery.
The committee has held Dr Ramcharan Thiagarajan as responsible for violating the Indian Medical Council Regulations, especially Clause 7.16.
The clause clearly states that before performing a surgery, the physician should obtain a written consent from either the husband or the wife, parent or a guardian in case of a minor, or the patient herself or himself as the case may be.
In case of a surgery that may result in sterility, the consent of both husband and wife is needed, the clause states.
As a result, the Government of Karnataka (Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare) has been requested to take suitable action against the hospital management for conducting pancreatic transplant surgery without a valid permission to do so.
The management of Fortis Hospital, however, responding to the MCI’s action said: “ We have not yet received any communication from the MCI. We shall examine it once we receive the information and take appropriate action.”