Labourer discharged against medical advice, flown to Chennai

CHENNAI/TRICHY/COIMBATORE: Karthik N, 19, a daily wage labourer admitted to Thanjavur Government Medical College Hospital on September 30 with a grievous head injury, was declared brain dead soon after he was airlifted to Gleneagles Global Hospitals in Chennai on Monday night. AIADMK neta V K Sasikala's husband M Natarajan is awaiting a liver transplant in the same hospital.

On Monday night, Karthik was discharged from the hospital "against medical advice", according to a doctor in the Thanjavur hospital, and flown to Chennai in an air ambulance with a government doctor on board. He was taken to Gleneagles Global Hospitals for "further treatment".

Karthik was brought to Tiruchi International Airport by a private ambulance at around 11pm. The air ambulance, a chopper from Coimbatorebased Ganga Hospital that cost Rs 1 lakh per hour, picked him up around midnight and landed in Chennai around 1.45am on Tuesday.

By 10.30am, neurologists at Global hospital conducted a test and declared that the patient was brain dead. After this, the hospital alerted the Tamil Nadu State Transplant Authority (Transtan) about a "potential organ donor".

Even as Transtan sent out alerts about Karthik to all hospitals, the transplant team at Global Hospitals was preparing a critically-ill M Natarajan, husband of jailed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala, for transplant. "We will be harvesting organs once we get permission from Transtan. We are preparing Natarajan for liver and kidney transplant. There is a blood group match. Both are O-positive," a senior doctor from the Global Hospitals transplant team told TOI.

Karthik, a native of Koothadivayal village near Aranthangi in Pudukkottai district, used to erect flex banners for functions, according to police. While the Thanjavur hospital dean Dr Jayakumar said he had "no idea about the case," doctors confirmed that the patient was discharged against medical advice and taken to the Trichy airport in a private ambulance.

Ganga Hospitals in Coimbatore said they received a call for the air ambulance on Sunday. "A doctor from the government hospital got in touch with us. He gave us the case sheets and fitness certificate for travel. The patient had brain injuries and was on ventilator.

An anaesthetist accompanied him," said a senior doctor. The hospital refused to reveal details of the bill, but said it has raised the bill in the name of the patient. Karthik's father Natarajan, a daily wage labourer, or his family members could not be contacted.