ELECTION 99
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Can An Ankle Injury Kill?

A P Kamath

How can a woman admitted to hospital with a broken ankle die within a week, the coroner's office in Victoria is trying to find out.

The death of Natasha Rai in one of British Columbia's better-known hospitals is drawing attention. Though she died on November 24, the case is getting attention now because the coroner's office has stepped in to investigate it, following requests by family members and Rai's friends.

Rai, of Port Alberni, was a passenger in a car that skidded into another vehicle on November 19. Paramedics took her to Victoria General Hospital.

The investigation into Rai's death comes amidst criticism that the Canadian health system is deteriorating and the shortage of doctors has made the situation worse. There is a renewed debate about the performances of doctors and nurses in Canada. A similar debate is on in America over medical errors: A report issued last week in America said that as many as 98,000 Americans lose their lives each year due to medical mistakes.

That report, by the National Academy of Sciences's Institute of Medicine, said the mistakes resulted in deaths included keeping medicines in toxic concentrations in hospital pharmacies, giving patients doses of mistakenly prescribed drugs and illegible handwriting of drug orders by hospital personnel.

Reacting strongly to the report, President Bill Clinton has taken a new initiative to make hospitals safer. These involve creating a less stressful workplace for doctors and nurses. He also signed a bill that provides $ 40 million to improve health care and help train new pediatricians. The Research Quality Act authorized a new grant program to support children's hospitals that train doctors.

"We have the best medical system in the world," said Clinton. But he added that American hospital administrators and other medical providers "must first do no harm" and enhance "a culture of safety... to improve health-care quality."

In Canada, patients and health reform advocates are demanding that a similar study be conducted.

Coroner Dianne Olson told reporters this week that Rai was admitted to the hospital with a fractured right ankle and underwent "some medical procedure". The hospital maintains that the cause for her death is unknown.

"She may have had some medical complication," Olson reported that the investigation into her death would take three or four months.

Regional officials are also conducting their own investigation into Rai's death to find out if she received proper care in the hospital. Doctors, nurses and administrators will be interviewed, authorities said.

The coroner's report is to be rolled into the administrative report.

Next: International Car Smuggling Ring Busted

Tell us what you think of this report