Botched Surgeries: Telangana Orders Criminal Case Against Surgeon

The Telangana government has ordered the filing of a criminal case against a surgeon involved in conducting the Double Puncture Laparoscopic (DPL) surgeries that led to the death of four women at a sterilization camp organised at the Community Health Centre in Ibrahimpatnam of Ranga Reddy district on August 25.

The government also ordered disciplinary action against 13 persons, including the superintendent (now under suspension) of the CHC, the Rangareddy District Coordinator of Health Services, the District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO), the Deputy DMHO, a Deputy Civil Surgeon, a head nurse, some medical officers and some supervisors, who were found to be at fault.

A committee was constituted on August 29 to probe the death of the four women after the botched tubectomy procedure in the Ibrahimpatnam civil hospital. The State Director Of Public Health (DPH) submitted the inquiry report on September 6.

The committee reportedly underlined "human mistake" as the reason for the botched operations.

Following this, the State government directed the DPH to file a criminal case against the DPL surgeon Dr Joel Sunil Kumar, and also directed the Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (TVVP) to initiate action against Dr Sridhar, the superintendent of the CHC, and furnish a compliance report.

Four women, aged 22 to 26 years, had died in a span of two to four days post the DPL surgeries (tubectomy procedures) conducted as part of a special camp organised by the State government at the Ibrahimpatnam CHC. Several others developed complications and were treated at private hospitals in the following days. On the day, 34 surgeries were performed at the CHC by a single surgeon.