Kerala snakebite death: District judge’s report names school, hospital authorities.

Source – thenewsminute.com

An inquiry report by Wayanad district judge on the death of 10-year-old who died of a snakebite on November 20 has implicated the school and hospital authorities. This comes even as the teachers and the doctor held responsible for the Shehla Sherin’s death have moved the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail.

Wayanad district judge M Harris, who is also the chairperson of district legal services authority, submitted a report to the High Court after conducting an inquiry into the student’s death.

10-year-old Shehla Sherin, a class five student of Sarvajana Higher Secondary School at Sultan Bathery in Wayanad, died on November 20 after being bitten by a snake inside the classroom during school hours. The incident had snowballed into a controversy after it was revealed that a section of teachers of the school made a delay in taking the student to the hospital. Shehla’s parents had also blamed doctor of Sultan Bathery Taluk hospital for not administering her Anti Snake Venom (AVS) despite being requested to do so.

The judge’s report states that school authorities wasted a valuable half-an-hour that could have saved the child’s life, reports Madhyamam.

A student of the school, who is also Shehla’s relative, has said that she was bitten by a snake by around 3.10 pm. The CCTV footage timed 3.19 pm to 3.20 has shown that some students came out of the class, talked to a few teachers who were standing outside and then suddenly they all rushed to the classroom.

The report also says that CCTV visuals showed traffic police entering the school by 3.42 pm to train student police cadets. As per the report, the police was on the school premises till 4.45 pm.

Meanwhile, Shehla’s father Abdul Azeez had given a statement to the district judge that he received a phone call from the school at 3.36 pm. He reached at school at 3.45 pm in an auto-rickshaw and in the same vehicle, carried Shehla to the hospital all by himself. As per the report, none of the teachers accompanied him and it was only later that they came to the hospital. Judge M Harris has also stated that this was not a behaviour expected from teachers.

“The teachers had the responsibility of taking the student on time to the hospital. The child could have saved had that been done,” the report states. The Government Taluk Hospital was only one-and-a-half kilometres away from the school.

“The part where the child was bitten by the snake should have been kept still and should not have been moved. But she was allowed to walk. School authorities did not do anything effective. There are grave shortcomings in how the situation was handled by the school authorities,” the judge’s report adds.

The report also slammed the doctor of Sultan Bathery Taluk Hospital, stating that the doctor did not administer ASV to Shehla because there was no pediatric ventilator. The judge, in his report, has found that there were 21 ASV packs in the Taluk Hospital on November 20.

“The student’s father had asked the doctor to give ASV. It is a grave fault of the doctor to make the child lie there for one hour. There is no justification for making the child stay there for one hour if there was no ventilator support there in the first place,” the report says.

Dr Jisha Merin Joy, who treated Shehla in taluk hospital and the fourth accused in the case, reportedly approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail on Thursday. Earlier, two teachers had also moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail.