The Delhi Medical Council (DMC) has started inquiry into a Guwahati resident's complaint of "medical negligence" on the part of two city-based private hospitals, which led to his wife's death.
"We have started an enquiry into the matter. We will seek documents related to the case from the respective hospitals and examine them. The allegations are serious and need to be looked into," said Girish Tyagi, Registrar at DMC.
The complainant, Ankuran Dutta, has also written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who in turn has forwarded his complaint to the Health Department.
"We have received the complaint from the Chief Minister's Office. We will be writing to the two hospitals and get all the documents for further action in the matter," A K Saini, a senior official at the Directorate of Health Services, said.
Dutta's wife Anamika, an assistant professor at Gauhati University, had undergone a minimal access surgery (gall bladder) on July 17 at Navjeevan Hospital in Pitampura in north-west Delhi.
But as her condition deteriorated, she was shifted to Jaipur Golden Hospital in Rohini, where on July 19 she suffered several heart attacks within an hour and died, Dutta claimed.
Dutta has also filed a police complaint.
When contacted, a senior doctor at Jaipur Golden Hospital said, "We have spoken to the doctor and he is denying any medical negligence. There is an appropriate body which can comment upon it." Despite several attempts, Navjeevan Hospital authorities could not be contacted.
"The doctors stated that she collapsed due to 'enlarged heart'. Why was it not diagnosed prior to the surgery? And if there was no problem, something must have gone wrong at the operation theatre which is yet to be disclosed by the doctors that caused her death," Dutta said in his complaint.
Dutta claimed that "the report of the echocardiograph says that the heart size of the patient was normal which means it was not enlarged."
"In that case, is it not contrary to what the doctors had attributed to the cause of death," he asked, adding medical records and circumstances strongly indicate "gross negligence" by two doctors.
He alleged that mandatory pre-surgery tests for chronic asthma patients were not conducted before the surgery.
Doctors at Navjeevan Hospital shifted her to Jaipur Golden Hospital citing its proximity despite "our insistence on taking her to a renowned hospital", he further alleged.
