Panel probing Jayalalithaa's death rejects Apollo Hospitals' plea for medical board

A panel probing former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa's death has rejected Apollo Hospitals' plea to set up a medical board to help examine medical records related to her treatment in 2016.

Citing the assistance provided by government doctors following its request to decipher the medical records, the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry dismissed Apollo Hospitals' application saying it could examine any number of doctors on their (Apollo) side.

Specialists, including a cardiothoracic surgeon and a biochemist from Madras Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital here, scrutinised the medical records of Apollo Hospitals on the late leader's treatment, the commission said.

Affirming that it alone can analyse the evidence, the commission said, "This duty can be discharged only by the commission, not by the panel of doctors."
Responding to this point, the commission's counsel said, "The medical terms as spelt out by doctors alone have been recorded...the spelling mistakes may be corrected after due notice to parties...even the spelling mistake will not change the name of the disease or its treatment."