Gujarat doctor arrested for 'botched' angioplasty of PMJAY beneficiaries

The police said the patients were not given proper post-operative care and no cardiologist was present at the time of patients’ death.

Ahmedabad: Police have registered three FIRs over the death of two PMJAY beneficiaries due to unnecessary and botched angioplasty at an Ahmedabad hospital and arrested the doctor who performed the heart procedure, an official said on Thursday.

The city’s Vastrapur police registered the cases on Wednesday night, while the main accused and cardiologist Dr Prashant Vazirani, who had carried out angioplasty on the victims at Khyati Multispeciality Hospital here, was arrested on Thursday morning, he said.

Two cases came on complaints by the kin of the deceased, while the third was registered after Chief District Medical Officer Dr Prakash Mehta approached the cops on behalf of the state government, said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 1, Himanshu Verma.

“Besides Vazirani, who has been arrested, four others have been shown in these FIRs. Further investigation is on,” said Verma.

The other accused have been identified as Kartik Patel, chairman of the private hospital, CEO Chirag Rajput, and directors Rajshri Kothari and Dr Sanjay Patolia.

All the five accused have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, forgery, and criminal conspiracy.

According to the police, these accused “hatched a conspiracy to get undue financial benefit under the Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) which led to the death of two persons”.

The Gujarat government had announced on Wednesday that a police complaint would be filed against the hospital management over the death of the two persons who were enrolled under the central health scheme.

Nagarbhai Senma (59) and Mahesh Barot (45) were among seven persons on whom angioplasty with stent placement was performed at Khyati Multispeciality Hospital, situated in Ahmedabad's Bodakdev area, on Monday.

The duo, residents of Mehsana district, died at the hospital around 10 pm the same day. Angioplasty is a procedure that widens blocked or narrowed coronary arteries to improve blood flow to the heart.

As per the FIRs, angioplasty was performed and stents were placed in the arteries of these two persons despite the fact that there was no need for the surgical intervention.

Moreover, these patients were not given proper post-operative care and no cardiologist was present at the time of patients’ death, police said.

After going through the records, Dr Mehta, in his complaint, mentioned that the hospital lied about the blockage in arteries to persuade the patients to undergo angioplasty and stent placement.

He added that the victims were operated upon and stents were placed just to exploit the PMJAY scheme as the government would pay the hospital for the surgeries it conducted on the scheme beneficiaries.

The relatives of the deceased, in their complaint, alleged the hospital kept them in the dark and conducted the heart procedure in haste to take undue benefit of the government scheme.

The Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY provides free health insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh per year to needy people.

As per the FIRs registered on the complaints of the kin the deceased, the hospital had arranged a free medical check-up camp at Borisana village under Kadi taluka of Mehsana district on November 10.

Following the camp, the hospital brought 19 villagers to its facility in Ahmedabad on November 11, saying they would have to undergo angiography, Patel said.

After angiography, a process which involves the use of X-ray imaging to examine blood vessels and see if they are narrowed or blocked, doctors performed angioplasty on seven of them and also put stents on the same day.