Copyright thehindu
A five-member State-level apex medical board chaired by the Director of Health Services, which had been entrusted with the task of examining if medical negligence had led to the post-surgical complications and amputation of fingers of a 31-year-old woman who had undergone liposuction surgery in a private cosmetic clinic in the city, has given a clean chit to the doctors who were involved in the surgery. However, the State apex medical body’s medical report is “vague” on several aspects of the case and hence the police would directly meet the members of the apex medical body seeking clarifications, said the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kazhakkuttom, the enquiry officer of the case, on Wednesday. Though the State apex medical body had submitted its expert opinion on August 23, the report had not yet been handed over to the police. The woman, Neethu, a software engineer by profession, had undergone the liposuction procedure as a day surgery at Cosmetiq clinic at Kazhakuttam on February 22. Two days later, on February 24, she was rushed back to the clinic with serious complications and later shifted to the ICU of a private hospital. She had to be treated for over three weeks at the private hospital, during which, as a life-saving measure, doctors had to amputate several of her fingers and toes, which had turned gangrenous as the infection spread. The incident had drawn attention to the safety of cosmetic procedures which are now being performed not just by plastic surgeons, but by dentists, dermatologists and even by those running beauty clinics. District-level panel A district-level medical panel had earlier looked into the incident in May and had pointed out that the woman, who developed sudden complications after the surgery, had been kept in the Cosmetiq clinic from 9.30 a.m. on February 24 and given IV fluids, oxygen, albumin infusion and blood transfusion till 7 p.m. and that she was shifted to a higher centre only when her condition worsened. The panel had mentioned that “she could have been referred early to a higher centre for further care and treatment.” The State-level apex medical body was asked to take over as the district-level medical panel could not reach a definitive conclusion “whether the above delay is negligence or not and whether the delay potentially worsened the patient’s condition, resulting in an amputation.”
