Venugopal, Ramadoss

New Delhi, Oct. 20: Investigations into deaths from alleged medical negligence at AIIMS are caught in the turf war between the institute’s director, P. Venugopal, and health minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

Two independent medical panels are probing the charge that a senior heart surgeon, Dr A.B. Bishoi, left a screw inside the chest cavity of a 74-year-old patient who later died of multiple organ failure in September.

A committee set up by Venugopal has cleared the doctor of medical negligence but the health ministry has set up an independent panel whose members have indicated that they disagree with the findings.

The complaint against Bishoi was initiated by the head of his department, Dr Sampath Kumar, against whom the institute has now launched its own investigation into the death of a 12-year-old patient last March.

Venugopal had replaced Kumar as head of the department but the order was reversed within hours by the health ministry, which claimed final say in appointments at the institute.

Bishoi has questioned the impartiality of the ministry’s panel.

“The complainant (Sampath Kumar) is the chairman of the committee… and another member of the committee has no experience in this field at all,” Bishoi told The Telegraph.

The surgeon is accused of leaving the screw inside the patient’s chest on August 17 even after the mandatory instrument count by operation theatre staff during the surgery had revealed that a screw was missing.

Medical experts say a screw or any foreign material in the body increases the chances of infection. Part of the charge against Bishoi is that for nearly 60 hours after the surgery, he did not remove the screw on the ground that the patient was unstable.

He conducted a second operation only on August 20 — after a directive from Venugopal — and used a magnet to remove the screw.

The discharge summary claims the post-operative period was “uneventful”, which amounts to suppression of facts, say sources familiar with the investigation.

Within two days of the operation, the patient was readmitted in a serious condition with infection that started at the site of the operation and rapidly spread to the bloodstream. The patient later died of multiple organ failure.

Sources close to the ministry’s panel say Bishoi appeared to have “commandeered the case records” to doctor them. The sources claim Bishoi took the screw away.

But the surgeon denies he made any changes in the records.

“The case records were earlier with resident doctors and they are now with the health ministry. I have given the screw to the AIIMS committee,” he said.

Sources close to Kumar, who is facing an inquiry into whether he had operated on a wrong blood vessel leading to the death of the 12-year-old boy, say they are surprised that the case is being raked up now.

“The timing of this investigation indicates vindictiveness,” one of them said.