Protesters demanding justice for the 18-year-old footballer Priya blocked the exit of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital's (RGGGH) mortuary, preventing an ambulance from shifting her body to her Vyasarpadi home. On Tuesday, November 15, R Priya died from multiple organ failure due to botched surgeries and alleged medical negligence at the Periyar Nagar Government Peripheral Hospital where she was previously treated before being moved to RGGGH. Protesters including her family members, teammates, football coach, and friends raised four demands, including arrest of two doctors.
Much of their anger is directed at the two doctors from the Periyar Nagar hospital whose names they want made public. Protesters want the doctors to be immediately arrested and charged. Additionally, they demand that the doctors’ licences be immediately suspended. According to official orders from the Director of Medical Education, Kilpauk, that TNM has accessed, the two doctors — K Somasundaram and A Paul Ram Shankar — have been suspended. The order letters also say that Somasundaram, casualty medical officer, and Paul, assistant professor of Orthopaedics, have been transferred to the Government Medical College Hospital, Virudhunagar and the Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital, respectively. The orders further say that both doctors are to be confined to the headquarters of these medical facilities and that they “shall not leave the headquarters without obtaining the prior permission of the authority concerned.”
Priya's friends, family members and teammates blocked the exit of the ambulance and demanded the arrest of two doctors who conducted a botched up surgery which led to the death of Priya. #Chennai #Protest pic.twitter.com/dGFYZwGKwn
— Nithya (@NityaPandian) November 15, 2022
Priya's father is a security guard. Her skill as a footballer got her a college seat through sports quota. When she fell ill, her financial bg didn't allow her to access better health care. A young woman, with dreams of a football career, died today due to alleged medical neglect pic.twitter.com/UiBR6W8Ghk
— Nithya (@NityaPandian) November 15, 2022
Currently an FIR has been lodged at the Kolathur Police Station under section 172 (suspicious death) of the Indian Penal Code. Protesters, however, want both doctors to be named in the FIR. The police and state government say that they are waiting for the postmortem results in order to initiate further action.
On Tuesday morning, Tamil Nadu Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ma Subramaniam addressed media outside RGGGH to explain the chronology of events that led to Priya’s death. On November 7, Priya underwent surgery for a ligament tear on her right knee at the Periyar Nagar government hospital. When Priya complained of pain in both legs following this surgery, a tight compression band was prescribed. “Due to lack of attention from the doctors,” Ma Subramanian said, “the compression bandage used on Priya after she underwent a procedure called arthroscopy was too tight. It affected the blood flow, causing the veins to decay. She was shifted to RGGGH on November 8 because of the pain and other effects.
The Minister also said, “After Priya’s case came to the attention of Chief Minister MK Stalin, I visited her at the hospital on November 13. The CM had ordered that Priya’s condition be monitored closely.” He added that the state government had enquired in detail about the treatment that she had been receiving. “At the time, both Priya and her parents were doing well,” Ma Subramanian said. He further explained that since blood flow had stopped due to the damage to her veins, she needed to be treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). “A team of doctors, including an orthopaedic, knee specialist, aesthetician, urologist, and other senior doctors were attending to her. Late last night [Monday], her kidneys, liver, heart, and other organs started to fail.” She died at 7:15 am on Tuesday.