People want to live longer despite knowing the fact that living is not entirely in their hands. They visit doctors and even undergo surgeries to make their lives better, healthier and longer. But some times their lives end during the surgery also. One such incident happened recently at Delhi. Inspite of many developments in complicated heart transplant surgeries and other types of surgeries with high success rates, the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences, AIIMS was under severe backlash recently. A death of a patient caused by Live a demo surgery that went wrong was the reason behind the furore.
This had created great debate on the moral values of conducting such Live Demo surgeries. Sixty two year old Shoba Ram breathed his last after a Japanese doctor (who was invited to India) performed a surgery as part of workshop at AIIMS. This happened on 31st July 2015. The patient developed complications after the operation and died. For the demonstration of laparoscopic liver resection for treatment of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, Shoba Ram was selected by the doctors at AIIMS. Shoba Ram was transferred from Government GB Pant Hospital to AIIMS, Delhi after he was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis developed due to Hepatitis-B
On July 31st morning at 9 AM, the surgery started and was shown live to few surgeons through video- conference . Dr Gora Honda of Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious diseases Centre, performed the surgery for seven hours and there was excessive bleeding. The patient was transferred to ICU, where he collapsed in just an hour and half.
Inspite of many requests from the doctors to stop the laparoscopic process and opt for open surgery because of great blood loss, the Japanese doctor continued with the process. Laparoscopic resection is a process where liver is removed or sum times a part of the liver removed by means of three or four keyhole sized incisions made in the stomach area.
Live demonstrations mostly show the surgeons objective in showcasing their talent and skills live in front of their peers. In 2006, death happened to a patient in USA when similar workshop was carried out. Questions regarding the ethical aspects of the surgery were raised all over. Now for the present case , questions regarding the approval by Medical Council of India, MCI for allowing a foreign surgeon to conduct the surgery, probability of saving the life of the patient had the surgeon not insisted on laparoscopic process etc were asked .
As per the statement from AIIMS, the patient had detailed preoperative evaluation for feasibility of tumour removal by surgical process. Bleeding, a usual complication of this process was there and later open process was carried out and steps were taken to stop the excessive bleeding. Patient was then shifted to ICU, once the bleeding had stopped. Entire procedure took nine hours. Statement further added that, since the patient had liver disease he collapsed.
