JAMMU, 6TH JUNE: Resident Doctors Association (RDA), in a press statement issued to paigaam.in, while expressing their condolences on the unfortunate death of a patient at Dr. Satish Mehta’s clinic have expressed their solidarity with the stand taken by Doctors Assosiation Jammu (DAJ) on the issue. Earlier during the day, the DAJ president had termed the detention of Dr. Satish Mehta and his team by the police as illegal.
DR. Saurabh Katoch, President RDS reiterated the stand and said that, ” Dr. Satish is a well known and reputed ENT surgeon. RDA condemns the detention of Dr. Satish and his team by the police an an unfortunate incident. We demand that the higher authorities should intervene immediately and start on the correction path “.
Dr. Amit Kumar, Vice President, Resident Doctor’s Association, GMC Jammu. told paigaam.in that “Doctors do their best to treat their patients but sometimes complications do occur and without any intentional fault of the doctor. But that is something which is not in the hands of a doctor”.
Dr. Nandita, Anesthetist and wife of Dr. Satish Mehta also had clarified in a press statement earlier that the woman who died was scheduled for tonsillectomy on May 31. While the patient was being prepared for the surgery, she she was given anesthesia after which she developed bronchospasm. “After that, she was intubated and air entry in both the lungs was checked. Despite making the best efforts to treat the spasm, her oxygen saturation could not be maintained. Other fellow doctors were called in for help. Inspite of all the efforts, she suffered a cardiac arrest. Immediate CPR and defibrillation was given, but the patient could not be revived’,she had added.
Joint secretary, Dr Mukhtyar khan said that ,” According to recent medical updates, it is a well known fact, that the drug of choice for anaesthesia in tonsillectomy is Propofol. Bronchospasm, although is not a very common side effect, yet it can occur in some people because of anaphylactoid reactions. In simple terms, it means exacerbated underlying airway hyper-reactivity, which has the potential to become an anesthetic disaster. It may be associated with type – E immunoglobulin ( IgE ) – mediated anaphylaxis or may occur as an independent clinical entity triggered by either mechanical and / or pharmacological factors”.
The statement issued further stated that there can be any number of reasons for the unfortunate death of the patient and only a team of medical experts can determine what actually happened on the operation table. The police investigation is going in an entirely haphazard manner in the case. hence it is necessary for the higher authorities to take notice of the situation and take up the investigations according to the Supreme Court guidelines which clearly state that a doctor cannot be arrested until he is proven guilty in an inquiry held by a team of expert doctors.
