Indian Doctor Drills Hole Into Leg of Man Admitted to Hospital for Head Injury

A doctor at an Indian hospital allegedly drilled a hole into the leg of a man who was supposed to undergo head surgery. While he is facing an inquiry, a medical professional told Sputnik that such cases might be the result of doctors being overworked and that this aspect needs to be looked into.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — In a bizarre case of negligence, a man in India's capital city Delhi who went for a head injury treatment got operated on his leg. The gross negligence was reported by a state-run hospital.

#Delhi: Doctors perform leg surgery on a man who was admitted with a head injury at Sushruta Trauma centre. The man whose name is Vijendra, was confused with another man named Virendra, by hospital authorities, as the latter was admitted with a fractured leg. pic.twitter.com/UB6x0vg3Oo

— ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2018

The doctor who is a surgeon at the government-run Sushruta Trauma Centre in Delhi operated on the leg of Vijendra Tyagi, allegedly due to confusion in the name of two patients with different compilations. He was supposed to operate on the leg of another patient named Virendra, news agency PTI reports.

The case, that actually took place on the 19th of this month, came to light recently when the victim's son Ankit Tyagi informed the local media that the surgeon drilled a small hole into his father's right leg. Ankit said that his father didn't realize what was going on as he was under the influence of anesthesia. 

PTI reported that the hospital tried to perform some corrective procedures after the matter caught the media's attention. The doctor has been reportedly barred from performing any surgeries until further orders and an inquiry has been ordered by the state government on the incident.

Medical practitioners say although negligence needs to be punished, such cases are also reflective of the pressure under which doctors work in Indian public hospitals.

"Surely, the doctor needs to be punished. But does not it reflect that the doctors are forced to work for so many hours without sleep and rest that they are prone to commit such error resulting in such losses? Doctors should be punished but the reason behind such stressful working needs to be looked into and a solution must be found," Dr. Nilesh Paul, an office bearer of the Rajasthan Medical Association, told Sputnik. 

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This was not the first case of medical negligence at a Delhi government hospital. Recently a doctor at the country's apex medical institute, AIIMS, allegedly performed dialysis on a lady who had come to get treated for abdominal pain. The doctor was accused of trying to tamper with documents to cover up his fault but he was eventually indicted for negligence and punished.