Docs and family squabble over treatment of brain dead patient at CRH

GANGTOK, 04 Jan: Twenty-year-old Chunnu Prasad remains in the ICU of the Central Referral Hospital here at Tadong, brain dead. Doctors have declared him 90% brain dead; a condition he has been in for the past 11 days, a victim of a motor accident. Chunnu has been on the ventilator for the past few days, and if removed, could succumb. Doctors highlight that it would be unethical and also illegal to remove the patient from life-support. They are mistaken argue others, pointing out that Passive Euthanasia, which is the removal of life support system for a patient in a ‘permanent vegetative state’, is permissible in India. Active euthanasia being the administering of lethal injection, remains illegal.
Meanwhile, with Chunnu in the ICU, his family has been made to pay for his medical care which includes his daily stay in the ICU as well as various medicines and such which they are required by the doctors at the ward to procure.
A rather bitter dispute arose between doctors and family members over the adamant stand of the doctors that Chunnu could not be removed from the ICU as he would not survive. But that was the entire point of his family members who wanted their patient to be removed from the ICU into the general ward. He had been declared brain dead anyway, so, as was their contention, there was no point in keeping him in the ICU on ventilation coupled with the fact that they were being asked to pay for various medical items as well when they found the same expensive and of no noticeable benefit to the patient.
With the doctors refusing to let the patient out of the ICU, a complaint was lodged with the police and officials of the Sadar Thana including PI Tshering Sherpa reached CRH this morning to sort out the dispute. Staff at the hospital claim that they cannot let Chunnu out of the ICU as that would be against medical ethics; moving him out would result in his death.
This claim needs to be viewed critically as there have consistently been frequent complaints regarding the medical treatment meted out by the hospital. On the other hand, family members claim that the patient is theirs and they have a right to take a decision on such matters.
The matter has been settled for now with the police mediating and the patient being taken off the ventilator, as officials claim. However when contacted, staff at the hospital claimed that the patient was on oxygen and in the ICU and would remain there.
Chunnu Prasad was admitted at the CRH, Tadong on 24 December after being involved in a motor accident. He is a resident of 32 Mile, Singtam.
It may be mentioned here that on 07 March 2011 the Supreme Court of India legalised passive euthanasia by means of the withdrawal of life support to patients in a permanent vegetative state. The decision was made as part of the verdict in a case involving Aruna Shanbaug, who has been in a vegetative state for 37 years at King Edward Memorial Hospital. The high court rejected active euthanasia by means of lethal injection. In the absence of a law regulating euthanasia in India, the court stated that its decision becomes the law of the land until the Indian parliament enacts a suitable law.