Delhi Medical Council takes action against doctors after boy loses limb due to negligence

It was a piece of glass which had pierced his leg, and for that the 10-year-old boy lost the limb. And it's all because of alleged negligence of doctors at two government hospitals in Delhi. It happened last year, and now the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) has acted against the doctors who have been found guilty after a thorough investigation.

'Charges proved'

"We have initiated the action against these doctors. But the order will be passed by Friday. We have received the complaints against the doctors and the charges have been proved," DMC registrar Dr Girish Tyagi told Mail Today.

In May last year, a 10-year-old boy lost his leg after being allegedly treated by a quack in Rana Pratap Bagh area. He had sustained a deep injury after a piece of glass penetrated his left leg. The family initially took the boy to a nearby private clinic in their area where the doctor dressed the wound with a bandage and prescribed medicines to stop the bleeding. When the boy could not bear the pain, the family rushed to North Delhi's Hindu Rao Hospital where the glass was removed from his leg.

But due to lack of proper facilities there, the boy was referred to Safdarjung Hospital after a gap of five days. The family alleged that at the Safdarjung Hospital the boy was not treated in the emergency ward but at the OPD where the doctors allegedly said that Rs 5 lakh will be needed to amputate the leg as the limb was badly damaged by then.

Since the family could not afford it, they decided to shift the boy to Meerut where the amputation cost them Rs 1.5 lakh. "As my child could not get proper treatment at that time, we had to take him to a hospital in Meerut. Doctors at Safdarjung Hospital sent us to OPD, rather than operating on him. We have lost faith in the government hospitals," the boy's mother Reshma told Mail Today.

The two doctors from Hindu Rao Hospital are from the casualty department. One doctor from the Safdarjung Hospital is a paediatric surgeon and other one is in the cardiovascular and thoracic surgery section.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Council got hold of a quack from RK Puram area.

A team of medical officials visited the area even though the police had refused to accompany them citing lack of manpower.

"We went to JP Camp in Sector 7 near RK Puram. But we were extremely disappointed. The police did not seem to be interested in the case. We dialed 100 almost five times in an hour but no one came to help us. Last week also we issued a complaint against three quacks but till now the registration of the FIR is pending," Dr Anil Bansal, chairman, anti-quackery cell, DMC, told Mail Today.

On May 29, the Delhi High Court in its judgment stated that at least one raid should be conducted in each of the 11 districts in the city every month. The court, before passing the judgment, had asked the police and Delhi government to formulate guidelines against the quacks. The fresh guidelines states that if the Council receives a complaint then it has to complete the verification process in a maximum of 72 hours.

FIRs

A quack is a fake medical practitioner who works without any certified degree. As per the officials, there are at least two lakh quacks in the country of which around 50,000 are in Delhi alone. The Medical Council of India has registered at least 50 FIRs for fake medical degrees across the country. Most of the quacks are found in North and West of Delhi.

According to the official process, if any person reports a matter to DMC, the Council issues a show cause notice to the doctor and if found guilty, a complaint is registered by DMC with the police.

Thereafter, the police have to register an FIR after which the matter is taken to the court.