Inquiry report of treatment of journalist submitted

Nagpur: The inquiry committee looking into alleged negligence by doctors and other paramedical staff in treatment of a journalist Chandrashekhar Giridkar at the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College (IGGMC) has submitted its report to the college acting dean Dr M P Parchand. Giridkar was admitted to IGGMC after a major accident on January 14 at around 12 am and died at 4.30 am.
Though neither the report nor the college dean seem to be saying it in as many words the inquiry committee seems to have given a clean chit to all those involved in the treatment that day.“I cannot commit anything at all at present. I have just got the preliminary report in my hand. I will be sending the detailed report to the directorate of medical education and research (DMER) for any further deliberations. Anyways I am not authorized to take any action against all cadres of staff. So I cannot comment on action now,” said Dr Parchand.
The inquiry committee was headed by Dr – Mehta Professor and head of pharmacology department, Dr Ukey, professor and head of obstetrics and gynecology department, Dr P P Joshi, Professor and head of medicine department, Dr Sandhya Manjrekar, medical superintendent, Sadhana Gawande, matron and Rekha Boriwar , administrative officer.
The committee was constituted by the dean with consent from the DMER director Dr Pravin Shingare after news paper reports in a Marathi daily said that the death was apparently due to negligence of doctors attending on him. In fact there are allegations also of CMO not present at the time of admission on his duty place.
The dean however told TOI that the findings in the report say that the patient was admitted at 12 am on January 14 and died in surgical ICU at 4.30 am. He had long fracture in the leg (tibia) bone. All necessary investigations were done by the CMO and other doctors and nursing staff present in casualty and the SICU. Patient was having severe external as well as internal injuries. “The opinion of the heads of the surgery and the orthopaedics department were also sought during the inquiry. But since these departments were involved in the treatment they were not involved in the inquiry,” said the dean.
Since the patient was too bulky the chances of the patient dying due to fat embolism cannot be ruled out. Fat embolism is often caused by physical trauma such as fracture of long bones, soft tissue trauma, and burns.