Govt constitutes new panel to probe Rudra’s death

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has appointed a new committee to probe into the death of four-month-old Rudra who died at SAT Hospital on July 10, 2016.
The committee was constituted following an agitation conducted by parents of Rudra. It will be headed by district collector and will have Dr K Sreekumari, joint director of medical education and Dr K Sandeep, deputy director of health services (family welfare) as its members.The government has asked the committee to submit the report within two weeks.
Earlier the government had constituted an expert committee headed by the district medical officer and a paediatric specialist, police surgeon, forensic expert and public prosecutor as its members. This committee was formed after Rudra’s parents Suresh Babu and Remya Suresh met the chief minister demanding a probe into the death of their child.
The parents had alleged medical negligence as the cause of the death following which an autopsy was done.
The doctors of the SAT Hospital had claimed malnutrition as the cause of death, but the autopsy report had pointed out pneumonia as the reason for the death. However the expert committee echoed the findings of the doctors of SAT Hospital and said that malnutrition was the cause of death.
“The autopsy report and the report by expert committee don’t match. We felt that we won’t get justice. Hence we had to approach the high court demanding a judicial probe to find out the exact reason of the death. We have no trust in the police investigation and also in the expert committee report,” said Remya Suresh.
She said that even though the government had assured them that the internal organs of Rudra will be subjected to detailed examination at laboratories in Pune and Chennai, it did not happen. They instead conducted the tests at the Medical College Hospital, which again released a conflicting report saying that the cause of death was due to asphyxiation.
“This was the reason why we approached the high court. We have three different reports citing different causes for the death. Only a detailed judicial inquiry will bring out the truth,” said Remya.
Rudra was admitted to the SAT Hospital on June 13, 2016 for the treatment of a skin disease and the parents claimed that she developed rashes on her skin following the treatment. Her conditioned worsened later.