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Kerala woman rejects report on scissors left in her stomach after surgery
When contacted, a senior official at the Kozhikode medical college hospital refused to comment on the latest report
A 32-year-old woman, who is on a fast outside the Kozhikode Medical College hospital in north Kerala for the past two days, is seeking action against doctors and medical employees for allegedly leaving a pair of scissors in her stomach after a C-section operation.
M Harishna, a homemaker, began her protest after a second report of the expert committee constituted by the health ministry concluded that the 11-cm-long scissors removed from her stomach did not belong to the hospital.
“These people will even say I swallowed the scissors. I have lost faith and I will continue my protest till I get justice. Now hospitals are passing the buck, but I need justice,” she said, adding that she has suffered a lot due to medical negligence.
Earlier, she had filed a petition before the state health director and health minister Veena George. The latter ordered an inquiry and constituted an expert panel. Interestingly, two reports gave a clean chit to the hospital, but the complainant insisted on negligence on their part.
The second report claimed the scissors used in the operation was not in the inventory list of the hospital, and their records showed all instruments used in the operation on that particular date in 2017 were calculated properly and deposited back, officials said.
This was Harishna’s third delivery and the first two were conducted at the taluk government hospital in Thamarassery.
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She said her trouble began only after her third delivery in 2017 and if the scissors were left during any of the first two operations, she could have developed complications then. Suffering from acute stomach pain and other problems, she said she underwent many tests and examinations and the metal object was finally detected during a CT scan at a private hospital. Later, the scissors were removed after an operation at the medical college hospital last October.
“I seriously doubt a cover up to save doctors and other staff. They are simply blaming the earlier two operations. But I never had any problems then. Things got aggravated after the third delivery only,” she alleged.
When contacted, a senior official at the Kozhikode medical college hospital refused to comment on the latest report.
