Chennai: Two days after a senior Oncologist on duty was stabbed by the son of a woman patient who underwent treatment for Cancer for nearly six months, a 31-year-old man died at the Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital (KCSSH) at Guindy in Chennai city on Friday.
The deceased, Vignesh, was admitted with stomach pain and renal failure.
Tension prevailed in the hospital, as the kin of the deceased staged a protest alleging medical negligence.
The hospital, however, denied the allegations and said there no was medical negligence and
proper treatment was given to the patient.
The patient was brought to the hospital in an inebriated state on November 13 and had difficulty in breathing.
After being treated in private hospitals, he was wheeled into the Kalaignar Centenary government hospital for treatment. He was admitted to the Emergency ward and was put on ventilator support.
But despite the best of treatment, the patient died.
It may be recalled an Assistant Professor of Oncology Dr Balaji Jagannathan was stabbed by the kin of a woman, who was admitted with advanced stages of cancer in May this year and was treated for nearly six months.
The woman's son, who got her discharged from the hospital and took her to a private hospital where he was reportedly told that his mother's condition was declining. Upset over alleged improper treatment, her son Vignesh, went to the doctor's room and stabbed him with a knife on Wednesday in broad daylight.
He was immediately arrested by the police and confessed that he had stabbed the doctor alleging improper treatment to his mother that resulted in her declining health condition.
The doctor suffered seven cut wounds in neck, forehead, backhead, left ear and shoulder and suffered serious blood loss as he was a heart patient and was implanted with a pace maker after a surgery.
He was immediately treated at the ICU and he recovered within a day and was shifted to a normal ward on Thursday evening.
The stabbing incident created a furore among the medical fraternity in Tamil Nadu and leaders of the alliance parties of the ruling DMK and the Opposition parties strongly condemned the incident and urged the state government to ensure proper security for doctors.
Various doctors associations also staged protests, struck work yesterday by boycotting OPD services and treated only emergency cases across the state.
However, after talks with the state government, the doctors' associations withdrew their indefinite strike last evening and normal services were restored from today.
Meanwhile, security was tightened in all the government, district and taluk hospitals with the
deployment of a large posse of police personnel and all those entering the hospital were subjected to thorough frisking.
Apart from setting up of police outposts with the deployment of police personnel on rotation
basis round the clock, the government also decided to introduce tag system for the attendants
of the patients.
This tag system was already introduced in the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital on
a pilot basis after the horrific incident in Kolkata where a PG medico was raped and murdered,
and it would be introduced in all the hospitals in a phased manner.
Chief Minister M K Stalin also expressed shock over the stabbing incident and said all steps
would be taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future as the safety of the doctors,
whose services day and night are immeasurable.
Lauding the selfless services of the doctors, who offer treatment to patients visiting the
government hospitals, Mr Stalin said "It is our duty to ensure their security while on duty".