When the Government-run GB Pant Hospital referred All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to Sobha Ram to treat his cancer hardly did any of them have an idea that the latter would die during a live medical seminar at AIIMS. Sobha Ram, a 62 year old man who was suffering from liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, died during a medical operation when the doctors and medical experts at AIIMS were demonstrating how to remove tumour through minimum invasive process. However, the officials at AIIMS said that Ram's death occurred because he had succumbed to his disease and not because of the medical procedure. Other than a team of doctors from AIIMS, there were medical experts from Japan and students who were present during the seminar on Friday, July 31. A man died at AIIMS during a live surgery at a seminar | Source: collegedekho.com

According to the reports of Zee NewsZee News, Ram's family has alleged that the doctors performed laparoscopic surgery on him for nearly four hours. His condition mainly deteriorated when he started bleeding. The experts then advised them to discontinue the laparoscopic surgery and perform an open surgery instead, which was performed for nearly seven hours after which Ram was moved into the ICU. Ram's family has reportedly complained that the doctors failed to save Ram's life because of excessive blood loss.

Officials of AIIMS have refused to accept allegations of medical negligence. As reported by The Hindustan Times, their statement which was made on Saturday, August 1, said:

During the course of the surgery there was bleeding, which is a known complication of the procedure. The procedure was converted to an open procedure and all measures were taken to control the bleeding.

The bleeding was controlled and the patient was shifted to the ICU. The total surgical procedure lasted for about 9 hours. Unfortunately, because of the underlying liver disease he did not do well and succumbed at 11.30pm.

The patient’s relatives were kept informed of the patient’s condition after shifting to the ICU and subsequently. The mortality of this procedure in patients with cirrhosis in most centres of the world is in the range of 5-10%.

The statement also said that Ram had cirrhosis of the liver due to hepatitis B virus infection and liver cancer. He had a detailed pre-operative assessment for feasibility of removing the tumour surgically.

“Live surgery has nothing to do with the death; the whole world is moving from open to laparoscopic procedure for its safety rate. He succumbed because of his disease, and there’re several experts present who did whatever was possible to save his life,” said a senior doctor at AIIMS who wanted to remain anonymous.


Source: hepaticcarcinoma.com