Scissors in stomach: Woman begins protest before Kerala Secretariat as Rahul Gandhi writes to CM

Thiruvananthapuram:  A week, after a Medical Board dismissed a police probe report that substantiated Harshina’s claim that the scissors found in her abdomen was left by doctors at Kozhikode Medical College hospital during a caesarean section in 2017, the woman on Wednesday started her protest before the State Secretariat, here.

Speaking to the media before she began her protest, she thanked Rahul Gandhi, her local MP from Wayanad, for taking time to meet her, when he was in the constituency last week and for writing to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his urgent intervention.

“Though the State Health Minister (Veena George) is trying to help me, nothing is happening apart from assurances. Now that I have begun my protest here, I will try to meet the Chief Minister as I have been suffering for long and my grievances have not been addressed,” said Harshina.

In his letter to Vijayan, Gandhi has drawn the attention of the plight of Harshina.

“I would like to request you to kindly put in place adequate safeguards against such cases of gross medical negligence and establish effective grievance redressal systems so that victims are not forced to take to the streets for justice. I kindly request you to look into her case and offer her adequate compensation,” wrote Gandhi to Vijayan.

One reason why Harshina has decided to shift her protest from her home town in Kozhikode to the state capital was, she was upset when the Medical Board dismissed the report of the police which found serious lapses that happened at the Kozhikode Medical College during the time of surgery.

The police report had indicted two doctors and two nursing staff of the Kozhikode Medical College hospital responsible for this goof-up, which has been dismissed by the Medical Board report.

Harshina has been protesting for long and in March her protest was called off after she got assurances from Health Minister Veena George who promised her of action. When nothing happened, she again began her protest.

The woman was “deeply upset” early this year when a report stated that there was no evidence which indicates that the scissors were left behind in her stomach by the Kozhikode Medical College hospital staff.

Her troubles started when she went to the Kozhikode Medical College hospital on November 30, 2017 for her third delivery when this goof-up happened.

She recalled experiencing recurring pain in her stomach, and despite numerous consultations and checkups, the pain did not subside.

Eventually, a full-fledged radiological examination revealed that a pair of scissors was present in her stomach. The foreign object was then removed following surgery at the Kozhikode Medical College hospital last year in October.

–IANS