Kozhikode: The Medical College police on Thursday submitted the charge-sheet in the medical negligence case filed by Harshina to the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kunnamangalam. ACP K Sudarsan submitted the 750-page charge-sheet, along with 60 documents.
The charge-sheet named four accused – Dr C K Rameshan (42), assistant professor at the gynaecology department of Manjeri Government Medical College; Dr M Shahana (32), a gynaecologist at a private hospital in Kottayam; M Rehana (33); and K G Manju, both staff nurses at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital – who have been booked under provisions of the Medical Negligence Act. They are charged with leaving a pair of scissors inside Harshina's stomach during her third C-section procedure at the hospital.
The Health Department's principal had granted police permission to prosecute the accused on December 23. According to the charges pressed, the accused may be given a maximum of two years in jail, Sudarsan told the media after submitting the charge-sheet.
“It was proven beyond doubt during the inquiry that a grave act of medical negligence happened during the surgery. Though the medical board rejected the finding that the forceps belonged to the Government Medical College, where Harshina got her third C-section, an MRI report of hers, done just weeks before the procedure, proved decisive in the case. There were no forceps inside her stomach in the scan report,” said Sudarsan.
According to police, a pair of artery forceps were stuck in Harshina's stomach during her third delivery-related surgery at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital on November 30, 2017.
The police investigation revealed it was at the medical college, that the surgical scissors were left inside Harshina's stomach. Meanwhile, the medical board led by the district medical officer rejected the report submitted by medical college police citing it was not sure the forceps belonged to the medical college and that there was a possibility that these were left behind during the second C-section at government taluk hospital, Thamarassery.
Harshina ended her 154-day sit-in protest in front of the hospital on Saturday after the police filed the report in the court. Talking to the media about the charge-sheet being submitted, Harshina said: We seriously hope justice will be served in the case. However, my fight will only end once they give me the compensation.”
Earlier in March, the government had granted Rs 2 lakh to Harshina from the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund. Following this, she responded that she had spent a lot of money on further treatment necessitated by medical negligence and noted that compensation granted by the government was insufficient.