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The right arm of a one-and-a-half-year-old boy was amputated due to alleged medical negligence by doctors of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai.
The child, who hails from Ramanathapuram, was born prematurely weighing only 1.5 kg and diagnosed with multiple health complications, including hydrocephalus, a neurological disorder that results in an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. The boy had undergone a surgery to drain the excess fluid last year and since then had been under regular medical care.
However, complications arose last week when the shunt used to drain the fluid protruded through the anus. The infant was rushed to RGGGH in Chennai for an emergency procedure to avoid fluid accumulation.
Four days after the surgery, as the child was being administered medicines via intravenous (IV) therapy, complications arose when his fingers started to turn red. His entire wrist turned dark red, which is an indication of an acute thrombotic episode. But the mother, Azeesa Abdul, said the complications were due to the sheer negligence of doctors at the RGGGH. She said she reported the issue on Thursday and that there was no doctor.
On Friday, she said the doctor had given an ointment and that the doctors had come and diagnosed the problem finally on Saturday only, which had led to the amputation. “There were no doctors around that night. By the time the duty doctor arrived to check my baby’s health, the entire arm, which he actively used till the previous day, had turned numb,” Azeesa said.
“If the nurses or doctors had responded after I alerted them, my son wouldn’t have lost his arm,” she said.
The child’s arm was diagnosed with gangrene following a scan, and the hospital’s medical team swiftly recommended amputation. The child was soon shifted to the Government Institute of Child Health (ICH), Egmore, for the surgical process. The child is currently under the continuous supervision of a team of experts in the paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) at the ICH.
Health Minister Ma Subramanian said necessary action will be taken if negligence is confirmed.
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