Doctors ‘forged’ anaesthesia form

Two doctors of Mallya Hospital are in the dock for forging an anaesthesia consent form of a six-year-old UKG student of Bishop Cotton School, who was injured and admitted there.

After an alleged anaesthesia overdose, the doctors had called off a surgery and asked the boy’s father to shift him to another hospital.

The hospital, however, denied the allegations of forgery.

The Cubbon Park police registered an FIR on August 28 (Tuesday) on the directions of the 8th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court, based on a PCR registered by the victim’s father and ordered the police to register a case and investigate.

Fall at school

The doctors named in the FIR, which is in possession of DH, are Dr Chandrashekar M R (48) and Dr Prathibha J.

The incident dates back to June 10, 2016, when Lakshay P had a fall at his school, injuring his ring finger and middle finger of left hand. The school’s administrative staff rushed him to Mallya Hospital and informed his father Purushotham B S about the incident that happened around 11.45 am.

Purushotham reached the hospital by 12.45 pm, but found that his son had not been even administered first-aid. “I was asked to sign an admission form which I duly signed, after which he was admitted. The doctors then asked me to deposit Rs 25,000 for a surgery which I did,” Purushotham told DH.

The doctors then told him that his son’s lung condition was deteriorating and that they were cancelling the surgery. They asked him to shift Lakshay to Manipal Hospital, stating that their Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) was not well-equipped. He was shifted to another hospital which informed Purushotham that Lakshay was in a critical condition due to anesthesia overdose.

“I approached the Cubbon Park police station and lodged a complaint that day, but the case was closed the next day,” Purushotham said.

He then contacted his lawyer who, with the help of requisite documents, filed a private complaint with the 8th ACMM Court. “We have registered an FIR and are yet to record the statements of the accused doctors,” said a senior police officer.

The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) registered a suo motu case and has also written to the director of Health and Family Welfare to probe and submit a report.

Hospital denies charge

“We strongly deny the allegations of forgery by our doctors in the informed consent form. Nobody can sign for anybody, and we do not perform a procedure on a patient until the patient’s representative reaches the hospital in non-emergent case. Lakshay’s was a non-emergent case. In emergent cases, we take signature of a representative who could be a friend or a person who has accompanied the patient at that time,” said Dr Humera Sayeeta, medical administrator, Mallya Hospital.