Doctor's death raises questions over Kerala's emergency care facility

While the brutal killing of a young doctor at a government hospital in Kerala has raised questions over the efficiency of the emergency medical care facilities of the state, health authorities are stating that the tense situation at the hospital caused delay in giving emergency care to the 23-year old doctor.

Dr Vandana Das was stabbed by a person brought by the police for treatment at the government taluk hospital at Kottarakkara in Kollam on Wednesday. She was taken to a nearby private hospital for emergency care and later to a super specialty hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, around 65 km away, even as there was a government medical college hospital in Kollam, which was only around 25 km away.

Her colleague house-surgeons have alleged the failure of the government taluk hospital in diagnosing that she was suffering from pneumothorax due to injury in lungs and giving intubation.

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"Dr Das died due to pneumothorax. Had the taluk hospital diagnosed that she was suffering from pneumothorax and given intubation Dr Das 'could' have survived," said a house-surgeon.

However, an official of the government taluk hospital said that Dr Das could not be given proper emergency care at the taluk hospital owing to terrifying situation that prevailed there at that time. Hence Dr Das was rushed to the nearby private hospital for emergency care. She was given intubation there and was rushed to the super specialty hospital in an ICU ambulance as her oxygen level was drastically falling, said the official.

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Public health experts Dr Ramankutty said that even as he was not privy of Dr Das's case generally there were flaws in upgradation of the public health care system especially at the lower levels. "Even if infrastructure is upgraded, there would not be trained staff. The systems are not so oriented to deal with such emergency situations. There need to be specific protocols to deal with such situations to avoid delay in proper medical attention," he said.

Meanwhile, the doctors have called off their stir partially following assurance from the government to tighten laws for their protection. The doctors will continue to keep off from VIP duties and house-surgeons would keep off from night duties.