Four physicians sued over 'wrong surgery' in Dhaka

Four physicians of a government hospital in Dhaka have been sued over alleged "negligence and faulty surgery" of a patient who died after a second surgery.

Victim Marufa Begum Meri's son Ahmed Rafi filed the case with a Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Thursday (12 January) against four doctors of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital (SSMCH) over the death of his mother caused allegedly by their botched surgery.

After failing to file the case with Sher-e Bangla Nagar police station the plaintiff appealed before the court and Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ahmed Humayun Kabir recorded his statement.

The court also asked the officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station to record the complaint as a first information report (FIR).

The four accused are Prof Md Mostafizur Rahman, Dr Nadim Ahmed, Dr Tania and Dr Arafat of the SSMCH.

According to the case documents, Marufa Begum Meri was admitted to the hospital under Prof Md Mostafizur Rahman for removing gallstones on 3 December.

She went through surgery on 18 December. But the doctors somehow created a hole in her gut and hid the matter completely, reads the case statement.

After the surgery the doctors claimed the patient had a hernia which was also attended to during the operation, however the patient's family claimed that the physicians could not show any proper documentation or evidence that indicated hernia.

The case document also read that after the surgery, an infection spread in Marufa's intestine due to the open wound, causing high fever and severe diarrhea.

Later the accused doctors confessed their mistake and took her for a second surgery on 2 January, at their own expense, Marufa's son said.

However, after the second operation, the condition of the victim deteriorated quickly and she succumbed to her death on 4 January, the plaintiff said.

When asked, why the police did not record the case after the victim's family appeared before them, Mahmud Khan, assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Tejgaon zone denied making any comment regarding the matter.

A physician from the SSMCH Surgery department told The Business Standard on the condition of anonymity that the surgery was done with some errors; he termed it a medical accident rather than a faulty surgery.