Niloufer Hospital case: surgeries were performed by medical students?

Hyderabad: Families of 5 women who died due to post-operative bleeding after giving birth alleged that the surgeries were carried out by post-graduate (PG) medical students without any supervision. Hyderabad district collector Rahul Bojja, who is heading the inspection, also didn’t rule out that a bunch of postgraduate medical students, could have possibly carried out the surgeries without supervision, leading to heavy blood loss.

Authorities are still verifying these allegations. They are also looking into the fact whether contaminated blood supplied to the hospital could have caused the deaths. Samples of blood given to the victims have been sent for testing.

It must be recalled that five pregnant women who underwent caesarian section surgeries died at the Niloufer Hospital between January 28 and February 4.

According to Mujtaba Hasan Askari, founder of Helping Hand Foundation an NGO, it was revealed by senior doctors from the hospital that the surgeries were performed by PG students, without any supervision. The senior doctors further disclosed that the students panicked when the patients bled post surgery, so they asked the kin of the patients to bring more blood.

It is also believed that untested blood administered on patients from a private blood bank could have also worsened their condition. A doctor who wished that his name is not disclosed felt that the blood could have triggered an outbreak of Antibody-Mediated Rejection, which is why the patients did not react to the medication given to them after that.

However Dr M Ramani, director of medical education, ruled out the possibility of a surgery conducted by PG students without supervision by a senior doctor claiming that there is always a professor present in the theatre.