Harshina protests at secretariat over lack of action for forceps left inside abdomen

Thiruvananthapuram: Failure to address her repeated requests demanding action against the doctors at Kozhikode Medical College in a case of medical negligence, wherein a pair of forceps was left inside her abdomen during a caesarean, led Harshina to initiate a protest before the state Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, August 16.

Harshina, claimed that the forceps were forgotten inside her stomach during a caesarean in 2017, and she was extremely upset by a Medical Board report released a week ago that dismissed a police investigation that initially substantiated her claims.

Speaking to the media before she began her protest in Thiruvananthapuram, Harshina 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.

The police report had highlighted serious procedural lapses at Kozhikode Medical College during her surgery, holding two doctors and two nursing staff responsible for the alleged oversight. However, the Medical Board's dismissal of the report has left Harshina deeply disillusioned.

“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 a long, and my grievances have not been addressed,” said Harshina.

In his letter to Pinarayi Vijayan, Rahul Gandhi has drawn attention to 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," he wrote.

Harshina, who had been protesting for a long at her hometown in Kozhikode, decided to shift it to the state capital because she was upset with the Medical Board’s dismissal of the police report which found serious procedural lapses at the Kozhikode Medical College during the time of her surgery. The police report held two doctors and two nursing staff of the Kozhikode Medical College hospital responsible for this goof-up, which was then dismissed by the Medical Board.

Earlier in March, Harshina had called off her protest in Kozhikode after she got assurances from Health Minister Veena George, who promised her action, but nothing happened.

Her troubles started when she went to the Kozhikode Government Medical College hospital on November 30, 2017, for her third childbirth. She recalled experiencing recurring pain in her stomach, and that despite numerous consultations and checkups, the pain did not subside.

Eventually, a full-fledged radiological examination revealed that a pair of forceps was present in her stomach. The foreign object was then removed five years later, following surgery at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital in October 2022.