Doctors' Row During Emergency C-Section Caught On Camera in Rajasthan

New Delhi: As a woman lay on the operation table for an emergency C-section in Jodhpur's Umaid Hospital, two doctors argued loudly, calling each other names and even threatening each other. They kept wrangling, the sedated woman between them, as one staff member surreptitiously recorded them on a mobile phone. One of the doctors - the obstetrician - finally delivered the baby at a hospital in Rajasthan.

The hospital authorities called their conduct gross indiscipline and suspended them. The Rajasthan High Court also asked for a report on the incident at the hospital, the city's biggest.

A fact-finding committee set up by the court, however, found that contrary to the hospital's initial stand, the baby born during the operation had survived.

Dheeraj Sharma, a member of this panel, told NDTV that they had probed circumstances around two deliveries in the hospital.

"In one case, the woman who was operated upon after the doctors spat, her baby died after the operation. In the second case the woman, who is seen in the video... that was a successful operation and her baby is healthy," Mr Sharma told NDTV.

The argument broke out between the doctors - Ashok Nainwal and ML Tak - during an emergency caesarean surgery scheduled because of the feeble heartbeat of the foetus.

The trigger, inexplicably, was Dr Tak the anaesthetist , questioning whether the patient had eaten before the surgery. Dr Tak, also reportedly told a resident to monito fetal heart-beats which Dr Nainwal didn't agree with.

"You stay within your aukat (limits)," Dr Nainwal, in green scrubs and surgery gear, is seen shouting at the anaesthetist in the video clip.

It quickly degenerates into shouting and name-calling, except the setting was not the streets but an operation theatre. A nurse and another doctor are seen trying to stop them and remind them that a surgery was on.  In his defence, Dr Nainwal later said he had been provoked.

"We recorded statements of all the staff present in the operation theatre. As far as the patient is concerned there was no lapse in treatment... The patient was operated within three hours of being admitted," said Dr Ranjana Desai.

A hospital panel will investigate the conduct of the doctors, who have both been removed, said Ami Lal Bhatt, principal of the Medical College of Jodhpur, which runs the hospital.

"This is condemnable... a violation of OT (operation theatre) discipline," Dr Bhatt commented.