HC seeks report on deaths of 5 patients' at Madurai GRH

A public interest litigation petition filed by A Veronica Mary of KK Nagar came up for hearing before a division bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and M Dhandapani. The petitioner claimed that patients who were on ventilator support died on Tuesday evening after power cut following heavy rain.

The petitioner said the team should comprise a team of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Delhi, biomedical engineers, professors from IIT and senior police officers to conduct a detailed inquiry into the matter. While the hospital dean maintained that three patients had died, the petitioner claimed that the incident claimed the lives of five patients – M Malliga (58), P Palaniammal (60), K Ravindran (52), Arumugam (48) and Chellathai (58).

The petitioner also demanded an inspection of all Government Medical College Hospitals in Tamil Nadu by a team of electrical engineers to ensure quality of power generators and provision for uninterrupted power supply. They should also ensure working condition of ventilators, generators, cathlab machines and all lifesaving equipment in operation theatres, intensive care units and emergency wards.

Mary pointed out that while the heavy rains led to power cut in several localities, hundreds of private multi-specialty hospitals in Madurai functioned smoothly. The carelessness of the hospital resulted in the deaths of innocent lives, she alleged. The hospital authorities, she added, failed to maintain the alternative power supply systems and ventilators.

The trauma care building in the extension block did not have either manual or automatic power generator. The hospital administration had been receiving huge funds every year, but the authorities failed to invest the money for maintenance and upgradation of infrastructure facilities, she added.

The petitioner said it was unfortunate that GRH dean K Vanitha in her statement ruled out any failure of ventilator and the deaths were related to the power cut. Those patients were critically-ill with serious injuries and died regardless of treatment, the dean had maintained in the copy.

Further, the petitioner also sought to reject the statement of the dean that generators failed due to lightning. This was unheard of, as the generators were independent of any other electric connection and unless lightning struck the generators, they would not malfunction, the petitioner added.

On hearing the petition, the bench directed the State government to submit report on the deaths in MaduraiGRH. It also sought responsefrom the government onforming a special investigation team to check adequatemedical and infrastructure facilities in all government hospitals. The case was adjourned to May 29.

Meanwhile, the State Human Rights Commission took note of the incident suo motu and issued notice to the State government. In the notice, the chairperson of the commission, justice T Meenakumari directed the Health Secretary to file a report on the matter in four weeks. She has also directed the medical education director to file a detailed report.