A 35-year-old Singapore national died at a Chennai hospital on Thursday, hours after she underwent a liposuction surgery.
The Times of India reported that Alicia Medanin Khan, who weighed 85kg, had been admitted to S R Multi Specialty Hospital in Arumbakkam on Wednesday, and was shifted to the post-surgery intensive care unit later that day, after she suffered complications.
Khan's husband, Vijayakumar, a businessman in Singapore, alleged that doctors didn't allow him to meet his wife after the surgery, stating that she had to be monitored for 24 hours, following which he was informed that she had died of a sudden cardiac arrest, the ToI report adds.
Alleging that the doctors refused to reveal details of his wife’s health in writing, he lodged a complaint with the Aminjikarai police, citing medical negligence.
“The couple came to Chennai on November 4 and consulted a medical team on November 6, following which Alicia was admitted to the Arumbakkam hospital for the surgery. Subsequently, the victim’s husband approached the police commissioner’s office to obtain permission to take the body back to Singapore We might advise him to do a post mortem before taking the body to Singapore. Only after the autopsy report, we will know if there was any medical negligence,” the police were quoted as saying.
Reports also suggest that the woman may have undergone the surgery, to improve her chances of getting pregnant.
This is not the first such case to be reported from the city. In September this year, relatives of a woman filed a police complaint citing medical negligence, after a 46-year-old woman had died at a private hospital in Chennai, a month after undergoing a weight loss surgery.
Valarmathi, who hailed from Tiruvannamalai district, had received treatment at the Lifeline Hospital in Kilpauk for obesity along with her three children.
However, after she was in the hospital for nearly a month, doctors declared her dead.
Doctors at the hospital argued that they had taken the appropriate measures to mitigate risks with pre-operative preparation. Valarmathi's lungs reportedly went into Adult respiratory distress syndrome (a severe lung condition), which resulted in her death, they claimed.