‘Malaysian got brain dead Kerala man’s organs’: hospital, eight doctors booked

Apart from seven Lakeshore doctors, a doctor from Mar Baselios Hospital, is also listed as an accused. The court on May 29 issued summons to respondents.

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‘Malaysian got brain dead Kerala man’s organs’: hospital, eight doctors booked

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A Kerala court has initiated a case against Kochi-based VPS Lakeshore Hospital and seven of its doctors following a complaint that it harvested organs from an accident victim, who had been declared brain dead, in violation of norms. One of the grounds the court made note of was the liver being transplanted to a Malaysian citizen, and his wife allegedly being shown as the donor.

The court of judicial magistrate (first-class) in Ernakulam, acting on a petition from Dr S Ganapathy of Kollam, said there is prima facie a case and sufficient grounds to invoke the Transplantation of Human Organs Act against the hospital & doctors.

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Apart from seven Lakeshore doctors, a doctor from Mar Baselios Hospital, is also listed as an accused. The court on May 29 issued summons to respondents.

The alleged incident took place in 2009. The person whose organs were transplanted, 21-year-old Abin V J, met with an accident and was allegedly denied proper treatment at Mar Baselios Hospital, where he was first admitted. Hours later, at Lakeshore, “making his family believe that he is brain dead”, they were “induced to donate his vital organs”, the complaint alleges.

The complaint also states that the hospital transplanted his organs to a foreign national in violation of the law. In case of a deceased donor, rules state that the sequence of allocation of organs shall be in the following order: state list, regional list, national list, person of Indian origin, foreigner.

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The court examined two government doctors – forensic surgeon P S Sanjay, and Thomas Iype, head of the neurology department at Government Medical College Thiruvananthapuram.

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Dr Sanjay, who conducted the autopsy, raised suspicion over non-evacuation of blood in the cranial cavity. The court said that Dr Iype said evacuation of blood could have saved the patient’s life.

Lakeshore hospital said the allegations of issuance of a wrongful brain-dead certificate do not comply with facts. “Even though Human Organ Transplantation Act was adopted by Kerala Government in 1998, nothing constructive has been done on this… The Society for Organ Retrieval and Transplantation was the only registered body in Kerala promoting cadaver donation at that time. The Kerala Network for Organ Sharing , which coordinates cadaver donations, was formed in 2012. The hospital had sought the help of SORT and as per their advice, proceeded with organ retrieval,” release said, adding they would cooperate with the probe.