Three days after 10-year-old Kerala student Shehla Sherin from Wayanad district died after being bitten by a snake inside her classroom, District Collector Dr Adeela Abdulla says that there is still no clarity on why the doctor, who attended her, did not administer Anti Snake Venom (ASV) to the child.
Shehla, a student of Sarvajana Higher Secondary School at Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad district, was bitten by a snake on Wednesday around 3.10 pm. The incident created a major uproar as her classmates accused a few teachers of not taking her to a hospital on time. It was only after about 45 minutes that her father could reach the school and take her to the hospital.
The authorities at Sulthan Bathery Taluk Hospital also received flak as the child was not administered ASV although the child herself and her classmates said she was bitten by a snake. She was instead referred to Kozhikode Medical College, which is about 88 kilometres away. But on the way, as her health deteriorated, she was taken to Vythiri Taluk Hospital, and from there, to a private hospital where she was brought dead.
While denying certain reports that ASV was not available at Sulthan Bathery Taluk Hospital, Wayanad Collector Dr Adeela added that there is no clarity on why Dr Jisa Merin Joy did not administer it to the child. “Based on our preliminary inquiry, it has been found that the hospital was sufficiently stocked with ASV. But it is not clear why the child was referred to Kozhikode Medical College, which was far off,” the Collector told TNM.
The doctor’s statement had also said that there were no ventilator facilities for children at the hospital, in case of emergency or complication cases.
To this, the District Collector said, “According to my understanding, there are chances that patients develop complications when ASV is administered. However, foreseeing complications, the doctor could have at least administered ASV and then referred the child to another hospital. In fact, there are other private hospitals in the same region that have ventilator facilities for children.”
Meanwhile, the district administration is yet to take a statement from the doctor who treated Shehla at the Sulthan Bathery Taluk Hospital. “We have not been asked by the government to submit any report on this yet. But on Saturday evening, the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) sought a report on the incident. We will firmly inquire with the doctor,” the Collector said.
Two days after Shehla’s death, her father had told media that the doctor at Sulthan Bathery Taluk Hospital refused to administer the ASV. The doctor denied this in a Whatsapp statement to her peers.
The doctor also claimed that she sought the consent of the child’s father to administer the ASV.
Meanwhile Shehla’s father Abdul Azeez told TNM that the doctor did not ask him to give consent for administering ASV to the child. “I was forcing the doctor to give her ASV. But the doctor was in turn compelling me to take her to Kozhikode. What saddens me the most are two things, the doctor should have referred my kid to another hospital as soon as we reached there. Instead, they kept her in observation for a long time and then at last told we should take her away citing inadequate ventilator facilities. Or at least, they should have given ASV and then referred to another hospital. There were private hospitals nearby with ventilator facility, yet the doctor referred my child to Kozhikode Medical College that is about three hours away, saying there are required facilities there.”
Abdul Azeez, who is a lawyer, also insisted that as per law there is no need for any consent to administer ASV.
Read: