The Kompanna Veediya Police are investigating complaints, including one of medical negligence, against a private hospital in connection with a patient who was admitted for eye surgery and ended up in the hospital’s intensive care unit. The patient had suffered a heart attack following anaesthesia for the eye surgery.
Udeshan de Silva, the patient’s husband, has lodged three complaints against the private hospital in connection with the hospital’s handling of patient P. D. Anosha Chryshanthi. The complaints refer to medical negligence; the hospital’s refusal to release the patient’s diagnosis card when she was discharged from the hospital, and tampering with the diagnosis card.Mr. de Silva told the Sunday Times that the couple had consulted a Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) on the advice of the police. “The JMO referred Anosha to four doctors – a cardiologist, an ENT surgeon, a physician and a psychiatrist. We are now in the process of collecting the reports,” he said.
Anosha, a healthy 38-year-old mother of three, was admitted to the private hospital for an eye operation on September 26, said her husband.
“She was kept on a fast from 11.30am the same day, and she also had an ECG and pressure and blood tests,” Mr. de Silva said. “I was told that all the test results showed normal. My wife was taken into the operating theatre at about 5.30 pm. Both eyes were to be operated on to clear blocked tear glands.
“About 7.30 pm, I was told that the eye surgeon wanted to speak to me. The doctor said my wife had vomited and her pressure had gone up after being given a local anaesthetic, and they were therefore unable to go ahead with the procedure.”
Mr. de Silva said the eye surgeon left at about 8pm, saying she would perform the operation the next morning. Meanwhile, Anosha was still in the operating theatre. At 9.30 pm, Anosha was taken to the ICU. Mr. de Silva said it was only the next morning he was told his wife had suffered a heart attack.
“And the following morning she suffered another massive heart attack. Her heart stopped. I saw the ICU doctors massaging her heart and using the ‘shock’ machine,” Mr. de Silva said.
A few days later, Mr. de Silva spoke to a senior officer at the private hospital, saying he wanted his wife discharged so she could seek treatment at the National Hospital.
The officer told Mr. de Silva that the hospital would make sure Anosha would be restored to good health.
Anosha was due to be discharged on October 9, but because Mr. de Silva was faced with a hospital bill he was unable to pay, a sum of Rs. 750,000, and was forced to raise the money by borrowing from relatives and friends, his wife could be discharged only the next day.
Anosha was discharged on October 10, but the hospital refused to release her diagnosis card, according to Mr. de Silva. He had told the hospital authorities he required the diagnosis card so his wife could consult another doctor.
When the Sunday Times contacted the private hospital for a comment, a senior officer at the private hospital said the complaints against the hospital were groundless, and added that the patient was well enough on being discharged to be able to walk out of the hospital.
The officer said the proper channel to make complaints against a hospital was the Private Health Services Regulatory Authority and the Consumer Affairs Authority, not the police. |
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