Sponge left inside? Hospital submits probe report

GHAZIABAD: The District Combined Hospital on Thursday sent its report to the consumer commission in connection with a 2019 case of alleged medical negligence.
The complainant in the case had alleged that a government doctor in the hospital had demanded Rs 15,000 for delivering a baby and left sponges inside his wife’s abdomen after conducting the surgery.
“A probe was ordered by the then chief medical officer last year.A report was subsequently submitted in the case. We have forwarded the same report to the commission, which had asked for it last month,” said Dr Sanjay Teotia, the chief medical superintendent.
Ghaziabad resident Neeraj Kumar had in his complaint alleged that his wife, Manju, was admitted to the District Combined Hospital on August 6, 2019. Dr Mansi Chaudhary, who had attended to his wife, had allegedly told the family that a surgery was needed. “For this, Dr Mansi had demanded Rs 15,000. Seeing my wife’s condition, I agreed to give the money,” he had said.
The baby was delivered, but Manju was in continuous pain. On August 10, she was referred to GTB Hospital, where she remained for the next one week. Neeraj said that the GTB doctors released her after giving some painkillers but told the family about a lump in the woman’s abdomen. As the pain continued, Manju was operated upon at a private nursing home on December 13 that year. A large amount of sponge was removed from the abdomen, according to Neeraj.
Neeraj approached the court and got an FIR registered against Dr Mansi for medical negligence at Kavi Nagar police station in March 2020. The then chief medical officer, Dr NK Gupta, had subsequently ordered a probe.
In its report in July 2020, the probe committee concluded that since the nursing home did not preserve the foreign material in the form of a “sponge” nor did a histopathology test, it was difficult to say that the piece removed by the doctor was indeed a sponge.
Dr Mansi had also denied all the allegations against her. “After the operation, all the tools and sponges were counted. They were found to be correct…. No money was demanded by me,” Dr Mansi had told the probe committee.
The next hearing at the consumer commission is scheduled on January 12.