Woman alleges wrong treatment by TVMCH

TIRUNELVELI

Seeking assistance for a costly surgical procedure to correct the shrunken skin reportedly caused due to an intravenous injection administered to her two-month-old girl child at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital, a mother submitted a petition at the Collector’s office here on Monday.

The woman, R. Nambeeswari from Kallur near here delivered the baby at Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TVMCH) on July 18 and the baby was shifted to the incubator where it was kept for three days. When the baby was returned to the mother with a bandage on the left hand, Ms. Nambeeswari asked the nurses about it.

“The nurses said it was only an allergy caused by an injection which was curable with an ointment. Though the ointment was applied on the area, the wound did not heal. I informed the doctors about the medical negligence by the nurses, who abused me verbally for telling the doctor about this. When a radiological investigation was conducted, the doctors and the nurses said there was nothing abnormal and refused to discharge me,” Ms. Nambeeswari said.

Even as the prolonged stay for the mother and the baby continued in the hospital, another scan was done on the hand on the 20th day.

“When the second scan was done, the baby was crying continuously. As I sensed that there was something wrong, I asked the doctors to discharge my daughter and her baby, but they refused. Since the problem continued, we left the hospital and admitted the baby to a private hospital where the doctor said the wound was caused by the nurses’ fault. When the nurses administered an intravenous injection at the TVMCH, they had wrongly injected the medicine into the muscles that had caused all the problems, the doctors in the private hospital explained,” said Ponnammal, mother of Ms. Nambeeswari.

Though the wound had healed to a greater extent, the skin covering the wound looks like a burn, requiring a plastic surgery. “I am a flower vendor, and I cannot meet the expenditure for a costly cosmetic medical procedure. Hence, the government should help us in this regard,” said Mrs. Ponnammal.

A senior doctor at the TVMCH, while admitting that the problem was caused by “thrombosis”, said the mother and the baby left the hospital abruptly even as the “right line of treatment” was going on.

“It was not a case of medical negligence… Even before the problem could be sorted out medically, she left the hospital,” the doctor said.