Jayalalithaa death probe: Apollo hospital moves Madras HC questioning inquiry panel's understanding of medical terms

Chennai's Apollo hospital moved Madras High Court on Saturday seeking an order to restrain the one-man commission from further investigating the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa. The hospital, where the AIADMK chief was admitted before she died, has been demanding a medical board to also be instituted in the case.

According to reports, the hospital sought to restrain the A Arumugasamy Commission's investigation into the "correctness, adequacy or inadequacy" of the treatment given to Jayalalithaa before she died. The Apollo hospital has asked for the setting up of a medical board to be able to "understand medical jargon", CNN-News18 reported.

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On 28 December, Apollo hospital had demanded the constitution of a medical board comprising doctors and medical professionals to examine Jayalalithaa's medical records. In an affidavit filed to the A Arumugasamy Commission, the hospital raised the demand citing that errors crept in due to the inability of the typist to comprehend and type correct medical terms.

Apollo Hospital further said that words like 'intubation' were recorded as 'incubation' and such fatal errors raised doubts over the commission's understanding of facts about her treatment.

However, in the last week of January, the Arumughaswamy Commission rejected the hospital's plea claiming that it enrolled doctores from state-run hospitals to make sense of the technicalities of the case. The commission also questioned Apollo hospital's intent behind filing such a plea.

Citing the assistance provided by government in deciphering the medical records, the Commission of Inquiry dismissed Apollo Hospitals' application saying it could examine any number of doctors on their (Apollo) side.

Specialists, including a cardiothoracic surgeon and a biochemist from Madras Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital in Chennai, scrutinised the medical records of Apollo Hospitals on the late leader's treatment, the commission said.

Affirming that it alone can analyse the evidence, the commission said, "This duty can be discharged only by the commission, not by the panel of doctors." It added that even if a panel of doctors is appointed, its opinion has to be weighed with the evidence of the doctors who were already appointed by the commission.

"This application is highly belated...it is an attempt by the Apollo Hospitals to scrap the evidence already recorded by the commission..that is the reason the applicant has come forward with this application at the last stage of evidence," the commission of inquiry said.