Son’s death: Father seeks justice.

Deccan Chronicle; SULOGNA MEHTA; Friday, Jul 29, 2011,

After the death of his three-year-old son and only child due to faulty treatment, a father’s fight for justice continues. Since the child’s death in January, Md Shareefuddin, has moved the State Human Rights Commission, visited the police daily for months without any outcome, filed an application under the RTI Act and faced threats from hooligans. The doctors who attended on the child have refused to take responsibility for the death and call the father “over-smart” and “crazy.” On December 26, 2008, the child, Md Rehanuddin, was operated on by Dr Y. Suman Vyas, at the time a cardiologist at Care Hospital. His father claims that in the course of the operation, the doctor damaged Rehan’s lungs. “I came to know about this when I took my son for treatment to the Niloufer and Nims hospitals. Ever since the operation, my son suffered severe respiratory tract infections," said Md Shareefuddin. Finally, another procedure (cath study under anaesthesia) was done on the child on January 22, 2011 at Nims. The child never regained consciousness. The parents alleged that their signatures were not taken before the cath study. They complained that Nims refused to give any report on what went wrong till they filed an RTI. Rubbishing the allegations, Dr Vyas said, “Rehan’s was a complex case. Besides the hole, he had scimitar syndrome and underdeveloped lungs. He died two years after the surgery. It’s to do with his respiratory infections.” Dr B. Srinivas, Nims cardiologist, said, “We had verbally explained to the parents about the cath study. The only mistake was a technical lapse on the part of a junior colleagues who didn’t attach the parents’ signature. We were ready to type out the reports but before we could do it, the father snatched away the hand-written draft from us.” The Panjagutta SHO, Mr Ashoke Chakravarthy, said: “The SHRC has asked Nims to submit a report. We will proceed after we get the report from the SHRC.”