11 doctors booked after ‘negligence’ cited in heart surgery death probe

PUNE: Eleven doctors from the city have been booked by the Wanowrie police after a medical panel report held that there was negligence in handling complications during a heart surgery that led to the death of a 34-yearold man in April last year.

The First Information Report in the death by negligence case registered by the Wanowrie police against 11 doctors from the Rasiklal M Dhariwal Heart Care and Research Institute in Fatimanagar, citing the Sassoon General Hospital’s experts’ committee, said that the panel’s report stated that the patient, Bhairavnath Vasant Dhalgade (34), was “not given proper treatment for medical complications that arose during surgery and this prima facie indicated negligence”.

Dhalgude was operated on April 14, 2018 and he died on April 17, 2018.

“The patient was put on ventilator after his condition deteriorated due to complications during surgery and death resulted due to the complications during surgery,” the FIR, quoting the Sassoon hospital report, said.

Dr Ranjit Jagtap, the institute’s chief cardiac surgeon and medical director, who operated on Dhalgade with a team of 10 doctors, told TOI, “We challenge the committee’s report and we will exercise our legal options.”

Jagtap said the panel’s observation about the complications during surgery is right but it was tackled. “The complications were of common occurrence in a cardiac surgery and we deny any negligence in handling them,” he added.

A senior official from the Sassoon General Hospital, who did not wish to be named, said the hospital stands by its panel’s report.

Bhairavnath’s widow, Sunita (34), stated in the FIR that her husband was admitted to the heart care institute on April 12 after Jagtap advised her family that considering her husband’s age and physique, they should go for minimal invasive surgery instead of an open heart surgery. They were told that the patient would recover fully in a short time and would be discharged from the hospital within eight days, she stated.

She added that the surgeon informed her on April 14, 2018 that the surgery was successful. However, a couple of hours later, he told her that they had to perform another surgery to address an undetected hole in the valve.

Thereafter, he was put on ventilator support and the doctors kept telling her that he was kept in a state of unconsciousness as part of treatment.

On the afternoon of April 17, 2018, the hospital staff informed Sunita that her husband’s condition was critical and a few hours later told her that he had passed away, the FIR stated.

Sunita told TOI, “The doctors avoided sharing details on what went wrong while performing three surgeries, including two bypass surgeries and a valve replacement. Our doubts were confirmed as the Sassoon hospital’s experts’ committee came to the conclusion that my husband died due to medical negligence.”

Jagtap said the patient was diagnosed with critical aortic valve stenosis, a life-threatening condition. “He needed an open heart surgery to replace the valve ,” he added.

The team of doctors operated on him using a small incision on the chest as the patient’s family chose minimally invasive procedure. “The surgery was carried out successfully. However, when the patient was still on the operation table, he developed complications, including bleeding from the thin aorta and low blood pressure, which are common,” Jagtap said.

The surgeon said they took immediate steps. “We opened his chest through the sternum (chest bone) and to support him during the surgery he was put on the heart and lung machine. The source of bleeding was tackled and successfully treated. The patient was then shifted to the intensive care unit for monitoring as every patient who undergoes an open heart surgery needs ventilator support in the initial 24 hours post-surgery,” Jagtap said.

He developed complications due to the bleeding and low blood pressure and multi-organ failure, the surgeon added. “He succumbed to complications on the fourth day ,” Jagtap said.