Stalin visits deceased footballer’s kin, offers ₹10 lakh solatium, govt job

Following Stalin’s visit, Tamil Nadu’s BJP president K Annamalai and Union minister of state L Murugan also visited the family and announced that the party will host a football match in Chennai in Priya’s memory

Two days after teenage footballer R Priya died due to medical negligence in what was meant to be a safe, ordinary and minimally invasive surgical procedure to fix a ligament tear, chief minister M K Stalin visited her family in Chennai’s Vyasarpadi on Thursday.

Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin pays tribute to footballer R Priya, who died allegedly due to medical negligence of doctors at a government hospital, in Vysarpadi, in Chennai on Thursday. (PTI)

The chief minister handed over a solatium of ₹10 lakh besides an allotment order for a tenement of 450 sq ft by the Tamil Nadu Urban Housing Habitat Board and a government job to one of her three brothers. Priya’s brother has also been offered a job as a data entry operator at the National Health Mission (NHM) in Tamil Nadu. Stalin offered condolences to the family.

Following Stalin’s visit, Tamil Nadu’s BJP president K Annamalai and Union minister of state L Murugan also visited the family and announced that the party will host a football match in Chennai in Priya’s memory.

Annamalai told the reporters that Tamil Nadu known for its public infrastructure should ensure that such incidents do not recur. “We will conduct a massive football competition across Chennai in Priya’s name,” said Annamalai. “We will bring Union sports minister (Anurag Thakur) for the event. Priya’s three brothers also play football and they will select 10 women football players. BJP will sponsor those 10 players entirely to whichever football academy they join.”

The state human rights commission took this case suo motu on November 16 and directed Tamil Nadu’s health and family welfare department to submit a report. Priya,17, was a first year college student and a national-level football player.

On the morning of November 15 when she died of multiple organ failure, the government suspended two doctors Dr A Paul Ram Sankar, assistant professor, orthopaedics and Dr K Somasundar, casualty medical officer of Periyar Nagar Government Peripheral Hospital. A committee formed by the state found negligence by the surgeons after they performed an arthroscopy to fix her ligament tear on her right knee on November 7.

Priya was shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on November 8. The doctors there performed two surgeries on her including an above the knee amputation to save her life. She was on ventilator support after the second surgery.