Dr Ashwin Pachaatt Vinod's father was taken to the TMH Hospital in Kozhikode, where an alleged unqualified practitioner declared him dead.
Published Oct 01, 2024 | 9:05 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 01, 2024 | 9:07 AM
Dr Ashwin Pachaatt Vinod with his late father.
In an alleged case of medical negligence, a man lost his life at the hands of an unqualified medical practitioner working as a Resident Medical Officer (RMO) at a private hospital in Kerala’s Kozhikode district.
The incident reported from TMH Hospital at Kottakadavu on 23 September 2024, has raised serious concerns about the hiring practices of healthcare institutions in Kerala.
The victim’s son, Dr Ashwin Pachaatt Vinod, a Liver Fellow at PGI Chandigarh, took to social media to share the tragedy, expressing his anguish over the circumstances that led to his father’s untimely death.
“At 4:30 am on 23/09/24, I received the most distressing call of my life from my mother, saying that my dad was experiencing severe angina and breathlessness. He had been rushed to the nearest hospital’s emergency department. I deeply regret our decision to take him to this place that tragically failed him,” Dr Vinod said.
Half an hour later, his brother called him, desperate for answers. “No one at the hospital was communicating with them. He handed the phone over to the Casualty RMO, ‘Dr.’ A, who told me my father was brought in late and that there was little he could do,” Dr Vinod recalled.
“At that moment, I believed him. I accepted our fate, thinking there was nothing more that could have been done. Now, I am filled with regret, anger, and the painful realisation that we were horribly misled,” he noted.
Dr Vinod also revealed that the RMO lacked the necessary knowledge to differentiate between the cause and mode of death, initially writing “aspiration pneumonia” as the cause of death.
“After an agonising 18-hour journey from Chandigarh to Kozhikode, I finally saw my father’s lifeless body. My greatest fear as a doctor had become a painful reality — not being able to be there for my parents and care for them when they needed me the most.”
Dr Vinod was in for further shock. “After the cremation, we discovered that the RMO, who treated my father hadn’t even completed his MBBS. He’s still in his second year,” he revealed.
Police have arrested the RMO, Abu Abraham Luke, and an FIR has been filed against him. “I received calls from Kerala Health Minister Veena George, who assured me that strict punishment would be given to those responsible,” Dr Vinod added.
23/09/2024 — With a heart full of pain and disbelief, I must share that my father lost his life due to gross medical negligence of TMH Hospital (Kottakadavu) and a fraud doctor who didn’t even have an official MBBS degree.
⚠️ TW: Disturbing & heartbreaking details ahead. pic.twitter.com/Hh5Kp16naW— Dr. Ashwin Pachaatt Vinod (@pachaatt) September 29, 2024
Luke had enrolled as a medical student in 2011 and has not cleared the second-year MBBS exams. “How could someone so unqualified be in charge of my father’s life? Or anyone’s life?” Dr Vinod wondered.
Dr Vinod revealed that the so-called doctor had been working illegally as an RMO in the emergency departments of various hospitals for years. “All the while, he remained enrolled at KMCT Hospital as an MBBS student for 13 years without any progress. The sheer negligence and audacity!”
He continued, expressing his disbelief and frustration:
“I’m struggling with so many questions:
– How could a second-year MBBS student with such a poor academic record be allowed to manage an emergency department on his own?
– Is it even legal to hire someone who has only passed 12th grade as an RMO, instead of a qualified MBBS doctor?
– What kind of background check did TMH Hospital (Kottakadavu, Kozhikode) conduct on this fraudulent doctor?
– How many more lives, including my father’s, has the hospital endangered by employing someone so unskilled and negligent?”
Dr Vinod voiced concerns about the broader issue of illegal medical practitioners in critical departments, saying, “How many more lives have to be endangered by illegal ‘doctors’ and money-hungry hospitals before action is taken?”
He accused TMH Hospital of putting profits over lives by hiring unqualified labour at cheap rates in one of the most critical departments. “I will not stop until there is accountability,” he vowed.
Dr Vinod shared “evidence” of the hospital’s negligence on social media, including:
– Exhibit A: “Proof of incompetence—My father was not diabetic. There’s no mention of atropine given for bradycardia, no mention of CPR duration and cycles.
– Exhibit B: “Similar patient experiences at the hands of the same ‘doctor’ working as an RMO at TMH Hospital.”
Exhibit B
Similar patient experiences in the past at the hands of the same “doctor” Working as RMO in the same hospital
Source- google reviews on TMH hospital Kottakadavu pic.twitter.com/WCL4EtSejI— Dr. Ashwin Pachaatt Vinod (@pachaatt) September 29, 2024
“Every patient deserves to be treated by an experienced and qualified doctor in an emergency. No one deserves the fate my father met. I mean *no one!* Help me reach the appropriate authorities so that no one dares to play with the lives of innocent souls ever again,” he pleaded.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
