A complaint has been filed at the Saket police station against the lackadaisical act of a doctor, who left a gauze in the abdomen of a woman who was operated upon in December 2013.
It was supposed to be the happiest time for Namrata Bhargava in December 2013 when she went for a C-section in Fortis Hospital for delivering her first baby. However, six months later, the time has turned into a nightmare as she has just gone through a corrective surgery to remove gauze from her stomach which was the size of a hand towel. In a sheer act of callousness, a doctor namely Monica Wadhavan left gauze in Namrata's body while operating on her six months back which has now left her with severe intestinal infection.
Namrata, who is admitted at Max Hospital in Saket right now, is in a critical condition at the moment because the gauze left a cavity inside her body, thus, dislocating her organs. "The C-section took place in December last year and Namrata had been getting a lot of pain in the abdomen. However, Dr Wadhavan repeatedly told us that it was regular pain that one gets after a C-section. The pain became acute towards May end this year and we consulted another doctor. The doctor suggested a series of tests at the end of which an immediate clinical correction was required," said the patient's husband Amul Bharghava.
Advocate Varun Sarin, who is a friend and acting council for Bhargava, said, "While our priority is Namrata's recovery, we have filed a police complaint and seeking the best legal action. We are likely to sue them."
According to Sarin, it was only on the operating table that doctors at Max Hospital found out the size of the gauze. "It was supposed to be a clinical corrective surgery. However, when she was under the knife, doctors saw that a huge cavity had been made because of the hand towel-sized cotton gauze. Additionally, her intestines have even got rashes and this has caused leakage in her digestion cycle," he said.
Doctors have said that if the patient's health doesn't get better in the coming three days, another major surgery would be done after which another corrective surgery would be needed in three months. Due to the difficulty, the patient may not be able to feed her new born for another six months. The child is currently with her grandmother. The entire episode has been a horror for the woman's family.
Meanwhile, Fortis Hospital issued a statement regarding the case. "Hospital authorities have constituted a committee which is currently investigating the matter. Fortis Healthcare is committed to the highest levels of patient safety wherein detailed surgical safety checklists are followed and maintained," said the spokesperson of the hospital in an SMS response to the media.