My comments:
India needs to develop a right to treatment for every child. May be a insurance policy by the government for all children could help for a better treatment. It is a huge number but one may manage with the involvement of parents by making them to pay ten rupees per month for a policy and thus provide good treatment for those who fall ill.
India children's health 'ignored'
Indian children on the streets
Indian girls are more likely to die than boys
More than half of Indian children under the age of five do not get the health care they need, according to a report by Save the Children.
It ranks India alongside Ghana when it comes to providing basic health care to its children under five years of age.
The annual report looks at whether developing countries are delivering health care effectively to children.
It found the Philippines was performing best with almost 69% of children able to get access to health care.
Ethiopia ranks last - only 16% of children under five get health care when they need it.
'Basic measures'
The report, called State of the World's Mothers, says girls die at much higher rates in India than most countries.
Although India has cut child its mortality rate by 34% since 1990, Indian girls are 61% more likely than boys to die between the ages of one and five.
Inequity of health care among male and female children is responsible for this situation, the report says.
The report says experts predict that over 60% of the nearly 10 million children who die every year could be saved by delivering basic health services through a health facility or community health worker.
"A child's chance of reaching its fifth birthday should not depend on the country or community where it is born," said Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children's chief executive.
"We need to do a better job of reaching the poorest children with basic health measures like vaccines, antibiotics and skilled care at childbirth," she said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7389283.stm
Indian Health Care Sector
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joshvajohn
- BRFite
- Posts: 1516
- Joined: 09 Nov 2006 03:27
Private Medical Colleges in India
I do not understand why Indian administerators are not thinking allowing more private Medical Colleges and thus enable the study accessible to anyone who wish to pay and study rather than do it in US or UK or elsewhere. It is pity India is in the hands of a few who wish to see it not developing even through the liberalisation process. When Engineering colleges are allowed now the reservation and extraordinary capital fees have been reduced in an extraordinary way. I mean no one bothers about reservation in Engneering colleges in the South Anymore due to too many colleges and too many electives.
Seal on private medical college
- Classes may begin in September
SANJAY MANDAL
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080520/j ... 293931.jsp
Bengal’s first private medical college expects to open its doors to students in four months with the Medical Council of India giving permission after three rejections in the past two years.
End licence raj in higher education
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opi ... 051473.cms
The summer of 1991 will be one of those few outstanding and memorable moments in Parliament’s history. After teetering on the precipice of bankruptcy, Manmohan Singh’s first budget that summer blow-torched away all the chains that not only hindered economic growth but created what economists called opportunities for “rent seekingâ€
Seal on private medical college
- Classes may begin in September
SANJAY MANDAL
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080520/j ... 293931.jsp
Bengal’s first private medical college expects to open its doors to students in four months with the Medical Council of India giving permission after three rejections in the past two years.
End licence raj in higher education
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opi ... 051473.cms
The summer of 1991 will be one of those few outstanding and memorable moments in Parliament’s history. After teetering on the precipice of bankruptcy, Manmohan Singh’s first budget that summer blow-torched away all the chains that not only hindered economic growth but created what economists called opportunities for “rent seekingâ€
Medical breakthrough from India?!
Stem cells 'allow paralysed man to breath again'
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Getty Images
Perry Cross, who was left quadriplegic after an accident while playing rugby, says that stem cell treatment has allowed him to breathe without a ventilator
An Australian man paralysed from the neck down in a sporting accident 14 years ago has claimed he can breathe again unaided for the first time after having stem cell treatment in India.
Perry Cross is the highest profile patient so far to claim success for the treatment offered by a medical centre in south Delhi which, if true, would represent a remarkable breakthrough.
However, his claims have not been authenticated by other medical experts and details of his treatment have not been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Mr Cross met the actor Christopher Reeve, who was similarly injured until his death in 2004, and became his ambassador for stem cell research in Australia, appearing regularly on radio and TV and speaking at the UN.
Mr Cross was left quadriplegic after an accident playing rugby when he was 19 and has been dependent on a ventilator ever since. But after treatment at the Delhi clinic run by Dr Geeta Shroff, he has apparently been able to discard the machine that has been his lifeline.
"After 14 years of no change at all since my accident, I can now breathe on my own," he told Sky News yesterday. "You know you put your lottery numbers in each week and I feel by coming here my lottery numbers have finally come up."
Sky News yesterday broadcast footage showing him moving around the clinic in a motorised chair and travelling down a Delhi street. But it was not possible to tell whether he was permanently free of the ventilator, or needed to return to it at intervals.
Dr Shroff, who claims to have developed her stem cell treatment alone, starting in a small lab set up in her garage, has aroused the ire of the international medical establishment because she has refused to reveal details of the treatment or to publish her results. Instead, she has applied for a patent.
Critics say there is no way of assessing her work, or even verifying that she is treating her patients with embryonic stem cells as she claims. They warn that there is a disturbing trend for clinics around the world to promote stem cell treatment as a miracle cure, charging large sums, and rely on the placebo effect for their "success".
Quadriplegic patients are desperate, vulnerable and eager to believe they are making progress, however slight – especially if they have invested time, money and effort in travelling halfway across the world for treatment. Their carers are equally anxious not to disappoint them. A member of Mr Cross's team said that the progress made by his charge was "massive".
"We have tried so many times over the years to get him off the ventilator but never could. It's amazing," he told Sky News.
Previous patients who have sought treatment at the clinic include Sonia Smith, 46, an Australian mother of three children, who broke her back in a car accident three years ago. Mrs Smith claimed last year to have begun walking with callipers following the treatment, after being told by doctors in Brisbane she would never walk again.
Dr Shroff has angrily dismissed claims that she is exploiting patients. "How dare scientists around the world refer to this as the placebo effect? They are rubbishing my work without seeing my patients," she told The Observer last year. She came up with an Alice-in-Wonderland defence of her refusal to publish her results. She said: "Peer review – what is that? Review by people who understand what you are doing. But no one understands what I am doing because I am the first."
Stem cells 'allow paralysed man to breath again'
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
Getty Images
Perry Cross, who was left quadriplegic after an accident while playing rugby, says that stem cell treatment has allowed him to breathe without a ventilator
An Australian man paralysed from the neck down in a sporting accident 14 years ago has claimed he can breathe again unaided for the first time after having stem cell treatment in India.
Perry Cross is the highest profile patient so far to claim success for the treatment offered by a medical centre in south Delhi which, if true, would represent a remarkable breakthrough.
However, his claims have not been authenticated by other medical experts and details of his treatment have not been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Mr Cross met the actor Christopher Reeve, who was similarly injured until his death in 2004, and became his ambassador for stem cell research in Australia, appearing regularly on radio and TV and speaking at the UN.
Mr Cross was left quadriplegic after an accident playing rugby when he was 19 and has been dependent on a ventilator ever since. But after treatment at the Delhi clinic run by Dr Geeta Shroff, he has apparently been able to discard the machine that has been his lifeline.
"After 14 years of no change at all since my accident, I can now breathe on my own," he told Sky News yesterday. "You know you put your lottery numbers in each week and I feel by coming here my lottery numbers have finally come up."
Sky News yesterday broadcast footage showing him moving around the clinic in a motorised chair and travelling down a Delhi street. But it was not possible to tell whether he was permanently free of the ventilator, or needed to return to it at intervals.
Dr Shroff, who claims to have developed her stem cell treatment alone, starting in a small lab set up in her garage, has aroused the ire of the international medical establishment because she has refused to reveal details of the treatment or to publish her results. Instead, she has applied for a patent.
Critics say there is no way of assessing her work, or even verifying that she is treating her patients with embryonic stem cells as she claims. They warn that there is a disturbing trend for clinics around the world to promote stem cell treatment as a miracle cure, charging large sums, and rely on the placebo effect for their "success".
Quadriplegic patients are desperate, vulnerable and eager to believe they are making progress, however slight – especially if they have invested time, money and effort in travelling halfway across the world for treatment. Their carers are equally anxious not to disappoint them. A member of Mr Cross's team said that the progress made by his charge was "massive".
"We have tried so many times over the years to get him off the ventilator but never could. It's amazing," he told Sky News.
Previous patients who have sought treatment at the clinic include Sonia Smith, 46, an Australian mother of three children, who broke her back in a car accident three years ago. Mrs Smith claimed last year to have begun walking with callipers following the treatment, after being told by doctors in Brisbane she would never walk again.
Dr Shroff has angrily dismissed claims that she is exploiting patients. "How dare scientists around the world refer to this as the placebo effect? They are rubbishing my work without seeing my patients," she told The Observer last year. She came up with an Alice-in-Wonderland defence of her refusal to publish her results. She said: "Peer review – what is that? Review by people who understand what you are doing. But no one understands what I am doing because I am the first."
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sanjaychoudhry
- BRFite
- Posts: 756
- Joined: 13 Jul 2007 00:39
- Location: La La Land
The lady seems to have been in news for a long time. This story is from 2005:
This is the forum where her patients meet to discuss the procedures.
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=57922
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-17-2005-81689.aspRow Over Doctor's 'miracle Cures'
Western researchers have called for tighter curbs on Indian clinics making "extravagant claims" over the use of embryonic stem cells after a Delhi doctor this week said she had treated 100 terminally ill patients with the therapy.
Experts in Britain expressed concern and scepticism on hearing that Geeta Shroff, 41, who runs a genetics research laboratory and hospital in south Delhi, had produced and purified stem cells from human embryos. They said it was "highly improbable" that Dr Shroff had, as she claimed, treated in this way a variety of incurable conditions ranging from renal failure to cerebral palsy.
The controversial claims appear to be the boldest yet by mavericks working with stem cells in countries stretching from Mexico to China, who cast themselves as crusaders against a medical establishment that has little to offer but comfort to terminally ill patients.
"My patients often have no other choice. I am their last chance," said Dr Shroff in an interview with the Guardian.
Scientists say the technology is so new that anyone can claim potential for it. But without clinical trials it is difficult to know if it works. Under Indian law doctors may treat "incurable and terminally ill" patients with novel procedures.
Dr Shroff points to satisfied patients but there is no scientific proof that her therapy works. She would not discuss how her stems cells were purified or tested. There was no explanation of how the cells functioned in the body. Her clinic has not run any tests to analyse how the body is affected by the treatment, and western experts say that, potentially, she could be pushing an important therapy into the "realms of quackery", that her work is tantamount to "human experimentation".
Stephen Minger, director of the King's College London stem cell biology laboratory, said: "It is highly implausible and frankly downright dangerous. If the Indian government wants to promote stem cell research then it needs to seriously look at regulation of these doctors and if necessary close them down."
An editorial in the British Medical Journal this year warned that Indian authorities needed to act to "prevent the escalating numbers of clinics offering stem cell cures for all sorts of ills".
Professor Minger said: "Only one team in the world, from the American firm Geron, is pushing for clinical trials and that is a very well understood, specific application for spinal cord injury. And we have concerns with that. This doctor has not published a peer-reviewed paper. How can one independently verify the results?"
However, Dr Shroff said patients from the US and Britain were going to her for treatment. Her therapy appears to consist of injecting a clear liquid, containing, she says, millions of cells cultivated from a human egg, into a bicep or base of the spine. Dr Shroff said her embryos were obtained with consent.
The Guardian spoke to a number of Dr Shroff's patients before this week's announcement. They claimed their conditions had improved because of her treatment. Poonam Singh, 25, contracted TB of the spine 11 years ago and was paralysed from the waist down. After a month of injections, she believes her condition is improving. "I can sit up, feel sensation in my legs. I could not lift my legs, now I can take a few steps," she said.
Jaspal Toor, a Briton with motor neuron disease, a terminal condition, had trouble breathing and slurred speech. Ms Toor, who paid £2,000 for a year's treatment, says that after a series of injections in the summer she could breathe more easily, and now swallows and talks without difficulty.
The clinic could not provide any detailed biochemical explanation for what had happened in these cases. Scientists in the west suggested that what was being seen was a placebo effect.
Embryonic stem cells can make any type of cell in the body and can develop into any of the body's organs. The accepted wisdom is that it is very difficult to control what type of specialised cells develop and, if you generate one cell, often it is part of a messy jumble containing unwanted cells. "Putting in undifferentiated stem cells carries a serious risk of tumours and cancer," said Simon Best, of the UK Biotechnology Association. "This kind of work needs proper oversight because people's lives are at stake."
Researchers in Britain say stem cell therapies are a decade away. They add that in the west and advanced economies of Asia there are legal constraints that keep scientists from rushing ahead with treatments before they have been "thoroughly tested for safety and effectiveness".
Alison Murdoch, of Newcastle University Fertility Centre, which made headlines in May by cloning embryos, said: "Desperate patients might be tempted but false hope is not hope. There are all sorts of ethical issues that this kind of unregulated work throws up. There are no animal tests, no checks on where the embryos are coming from."
Dr Shroff defends her actions, saying everything she does is within India's guidelines and that she informed the authorities. "Everything I have done has been notified to the Indian Council of Medical Research and there has been no comeback," she said. The ICMR said it had been informed but had not given consent. Prasanna Hota, the top civil servant in India's health ministry, said: "We have our concerns and worries about Dr Shroff's work."
Profile
· Geeta Shroff operates from a three-storey, 20-bed hospital, Nu Tech Mediworld, in south Delhi. Hanging from her office walls are Indian medical diplomas, training certificates from Asian research institutes, and a picture of her with India's prime minister Manmohan Singh, who is a friend of the family
· Dr Shroff graduated from Delhi University's school of medical science in 1993 before joining Vera Hingorani, a pioneering physician, at India's top medical institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
· She shot to fame in the early 90s by developing a technique for determining a baby's sex while in the womb without taking a scan.
A government clampdown, however, put an end to that revolutionary practice and Dr Shroff settled into treating infertile couples until she began working on stem cells in 1999. Six years later she finds herself back in the headlines.
This is the forum where her patients meet to discuss the procedures.
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=57922
Last edited by sanjaychoudhry on 29 May 2008 01:47, edited 1 time in total.
Oh she has filied a patent alright, here is the link.Tanaji wrote:If she has applied for the patent, then her methods by definition should be defined. I wonder why we havent seen a expert commentary on the basis of the patent filing?
COMPOSITIONS COMPRISING HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS AND THEIR DERIVATIVES, METHODS OF USE, AND METHODS OF PREPARATION
Oh not again!!sunilUpa wrote:Oh she has filied a patent alright, here is the link.Tanaji wrote:If she has applied for the patent, then her methods by definition should be defined. I wonder why we havent seen a expert commentary on the basis of the patent filing?
COMPOSITIONS COMPRISING HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS AND THEIR DERIVATIVES, METHODS OF USE, AND METHODS OF PREPARATION
I was just skimming through her patent application. What a load of rubbish. By her single breakthrough invention she has cured the all the ills of human kind!!!
csubash
A new Ramar Pillai has emerged 
) in the medical field.
For those of you who remember, that guy claimed and fooled a lot of people that he could create "Herbal petrol"...
I wish Geeta Schroff the very best but I reserve the right to be supremely skeptical of wondrous cures that have eluded the best medical teams in the world, with funding far exceeding anything she can come up with. Though I will be the first to congratulate her if by some remote she managed to think of something that others have overlooked.
) in the medical field. For those of you who remember, that guy claimed and fooled a lot of people that he could create "Herbal petrol"...
I wish Geeta Schroff the very best but I reserve the right to be supremely skeptical of wondrous cures that have eluded the best medical teams in the world, with funding far exceeding anything she can come up with. Though I will be the first to congratulate her if by some remote she managed to think of something that others have overlooked.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Neurosurgeon bags patent for chance discovery.
When Dr Lokendra Singh, a senior neurosurgeon, first designed a device using just a syringe and a hand glove used in any surgery as an emergency measure to remove a brain tumour in a patient to save his life at the operation table, he had never dreamt that one day this simple invention could bag him a national patent and repute among his fraternity.
But when the device worked well and better than the conventionally available expensive 'channel retractors for intra-ventricular surgery'— as they are called in medical terminology — Dr Singh decided to improve upon the device. Gradually when he was able to convert the apparently crude device into a proper scientific device, he realised its importance. Now he has even obtained a national patent (number 2,19,414) for his device called d "cylindrical channel retractor for intra-ventricular surgery”.
Recollecting every second of the surgery during which the device was developed, Dr Singh, deputy director, Central India Institute of Medical Sciences (CIIMS) said, "I was operating on a serious brain tumour patient. Reaching the tumour in the deep ventricle area of the brain without destroying the adjacent brain tissue appeared very difficult. I was wondering how I could dilate the area surrounding the tumour and excise it out and the idea struck me. Taking help from the team in the operation theatre I cut a 20 cc syringe into 2 cm. I used one finger of a surgical glove and attached it to the syringe and filled it with saline before inserting it slowly into the brain tissue. And luckily it worked, the area got dilated creating access to the tumour.”
He would be presenting his invention to the medical community through a scientific paper which has been accepted in principle for publishing in the world renowned neurosurgery Scandinavian journal, the 'Acta Neurochrirurgica'. A letter received from the publishers reads, "The device is simple, inexpensive and the authors should be praised for their ingenuity”.
Neurosurgeons generally use different type of retractors depending on the need. But most of these are variants of the simple one like the Leyla Retractor developed by Gaji Yasareil from Zurich, now practising in USA and known as godfather of neurosurgery, to the one like fixed channel retractors devised by Patrick Kelly, which cost anything between from about Rs 1-2 lakh to about Rs 60 lakh.
Dr Singh gives the credit of his invention to his team-mates for supporting him during the improvement of the device.
When Dr Lokendra Singh, a senior neurosurgeon, first designed a device using just a syringe and a hand glove used in any surgery as an emergency measure to remove a brain tumour in a patient to save his life at the operation table, he had never dreamt that one day this simple invention could bag him a national patent and repute among his fraternity.
But when the device worked well and better than the conventionally available expensive 'channel retractors for intra-ventricular surgery'— as they are called in medical terminology — Dr Singh decided to improve upon the device. Gradually when he was able to convert the apparently crude device into a proper scientific device, he realised its importance. Now he has even obtained a national patent (number 2,19,414) for his device called d "cylindrical channel retractor for intra-ventricular surgery”.
Recollecting every second of the surgery during which the device was developed, Dr Singh, deputy director, Central India Institute of Medical Sciences (CIIMS) said, "I was operating on a serious brain tumour patient. Reaching the tumour in the deep ventricle area of the brain without destroying the adjacent brain tissue appeared very difficult. I was wondering how I could dilate the area surrounding the tumour and excise it out and the idea struck me. Taking help from the team in the operation theatre I cut a 20 cc syringe into 2 cm. I used one finger of a surgical glove and attached it to the syringe and filled it with saline before inserting it slowly into the brain tissue. And luckily it worked, the area got dilated creating access to the tumour.”
He would be presenting his invention to the medical community through a scientific paper which has been accepted in principle for publishing in the world renowned neurosurgery Scandinavian journal, the 'Acta Neurochrirurgica'. A letter received from the publishers reads, "The device is simple, inexpensive and the authors should be praised for their ingenuity”.
Neurosurgeons generally use different type of retractors depending on the need. But most of these are variants of the simple one like the Leyla Retractor developed by Gaji Yasareil from Zurich, now practising in USA and known as godfather of neurosurgery, to the one like fixed channel retractors devised by Patrick Kelly, which cost anything between from about Rs 1-2 lakh to about Rs 60 lakh.
Dr Singh gives the credit of his invention to his team-mates for supporting him during the improvement of the device.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
in the same vein there was a UK based NRI assamese doc who came to assam, setup a small
transplant clinic and implanted a pigs heart into a human. as an aside just note the state of
medical facility in NE in 1996!!
http://www.issuesinmedicalethics.org/052mi062.html
The first Indian porcine nenotransplant (2)
The Press Guwahati (PTI) transmitted this report on 2 December 1996: In a volte face, controversial heart surgeon Dhani Ram Baruah, who claimed to have transplanted a pig’s heart to a human being on December 15 here, today denied the transplantation saying he only repaired two holes in the patient’s heart.
Official sources, quoting the doctor, said today as the holes were repaired Dr Baruah did not have too use the animal’s heart as planned earlier.
Meanwhile, the inquiry committee appointed by the Assam government to look into the controversy, today visited the Dr Baruah Heart Institute and Research Centre at Sonapur near here.
Though the doctor initially fended off the investigators, he relented when told the team was accompanied by a magistrate.
On December 18, the hospital staff did not allow the inquiry committee into the hospital. Dr Baruah also refused to meet it.
Incidentally, apart from personally telling journalists that he did transplant the pig’s heart, Dr Baruah had claimed the same in a television interview. He has invited the local medical fraternity to challenge him at the world conference of heart surgeons in Barcelona, Spain, in July, according to a local English daily,The North- East Times, today. He told the paper over telephone yesterday he planned to present his patient, Mr Purna Saikia (32), along with his papers in Barcelona if he was fit by then.
Reacting to the doubts over the authenticity of his claim, the doctor said he could keep an isolated heart of an animal beating for hours in his laboratory.
Meanwhile, the patient’s relatives complained to journalists they were not being allowed to either see him nor enter the hospital premises.
Amidst a raging controversy in medical and lay circles, the Assam government has ordered an official inquiry into whether a pig’s heart was actually transplanted into a human being at a hospital near Guwahati last Sunday.
The so- called ‘unique surgical feat’ was claimed to have been carried out successfully by Dr Dhaniram Baruah assisted by a team of 16 doctors including two veterinary surgeons at his heart institute and research centre located at Sonapur, about 25 km from Guwahati. The patient was one Puna Saikia (32) from Golaghat.
What made the event highly suspect in the eyes of most of the medical fraternity as well as the local media was that Dr Dhaniram Baruah had rung up newspapers and news agencies well before the operation asking for reporters and photographers to be present to record the ‘historic feat.’
While most of the media expressed scepticism given the elementary state of cardiac facilities available in the northeastern region, two local newspapers made a media circus out of the so- called transplant operation.
These two newspapers not only published ‘curtain raisers’ boosting Dr. Baruah a day before the operation but also published photographs of the patient and the pig on the operating table while the surgical procedure was being carried out. Pictures of the patient recovering after surgery were also published.
The published accounts, however, did not make it clear whether a pig’s heart was actually transplanted into the patient. It would appear that what was actually performed was an operation to repair a hole in the heart ventricle. Dr Baruah himself and other doctors associated with the so- called ‘transplant’ would give only evasive replies to media queries after the first reports were published by the two newspapers.
What made matters worse was that a national news agency picked up the reports in the local newspapers and circulated them both nationally and internationally.
Rival newspapers quoting other cardiac specialists here termed the ‘pig- to- man’ heart transplant operation a hoax and fraud. Dr Baruah had earlier received much all-India publicity by claiming to have invented a new type of heart valve and an artificial heart.
He was also in the news last August for confining three engineers of a medical equipment company at gunpoint in his heart institute demanding compensation of Rs. 8.5 lakh for allegedly supplying defective equipment. Following a complaint by the company, police obtained an arrest warrant for Dr. Baruah who obtained anticipatory bail. He was chargesheeted in the case at the end of November.
Reputed cardiologists here have termed Dr Baruah’s claim of having transplanted a pig’s heart into a man as a hoax and a publicity stunt.
"In the entire north- eastern region there are no facilities even to carry out an angiogram. Patients have to travel to Delhi or Madras for a heart by- pass operation. How can this man claim to have transplanted a pig’s heart into a man? What facilities does he have in his institute?" asked an eminent cardiologist.
"Such claims give a bad name to the medical profession as a whole and Indian scientists in particular," said Dr. A. K. Baruah, Principal of the Guwahati Medical College and himself an eminent cardiologist. "This is nothing but a publicity stunt." Several other cardiac specialists expressed similar views, some even questioning Dr. Dhaniram Baruah’s professional credentials.
Interestingly, the news of the pig- to- man transplant came out even as it was reported that the British government had put off the first scheduled transplants of pig organs into human beings for fear of animal viruses being carried over into humans. Alarmed by the uproar over the whole affair, the Assam Government ordered an enquiry into whether a pig’s heart was actually transplanted into a human being.
The enquiry committee, comprising Dr. Ramesh Verma, joint director of health K. N. Das and Professor of Cardiology B. K. Das of the Guwahati Medical College, visited the Dhaniram Baruah Heart Institute and Research Centre on Wednesday to begin their investigation.
They were denied entry at the gate. Dr Baruah and other doctors at the institute also refused to meet the enquiry team saying they were too busy attending to the patient.
Dr Baruah has also threatened to slap a Rs. 50 crore suit against the national news agency concerned for allegedly ‘misreporting’ the surgical procedure carried out. The agency, however, says it had reported on the basis of a press release issued by Dr. Baruah.
It is as if it had never happened. Called a fraud by the State Government, Dhani Ram Baruah withdrew his fantastic claim that he had ‘successfully transplanted the heart of a pig in a man’. Today, barely a fortnight after the outcry died down, the doctor is back to his experiments.
His guinea pig is 32- year- old Purna Saikia; whom he advertised as the recipient of a pig’s heart. Today, Saikia lies unconscious in ‘Heart City’, Baruah’s heart care centre at Sonapur, 20 km from Guwahati. Baruah has got the family to sign another ‘bond’ which permits him to perform a second transplant of a pig’s heart.
According to his relatives, Purna was quite hale and hearty before the mysterious 12- hour operation that Baruah conducted on 15 December. "On 15 December, we were treated to a meal of pork and rice," recalls Someshwar. "The hospital cook told us the meat was from the pig killed for the heart."
Today, Saikia’s family is worried. "On 21 December we were informed that his condition had become serious and that he had lost consciousness. We have not been permitted to see him again," says Someshwar, Purna’s eldest brother.
The Saikias are middle- class farmers from Golaghat in Upper Assam. Purna is the third of five brothers. Afflicted with a congenital heart problem, he seems to have been the victim of typical apathy with which doctors regard poor patients.
It was a newspaper advertisement which drew the Saikias to ‘Heart City’. "After a preliminary check- up, Baruah admitted him and a few days later we signed the first bond for the operation," says Prafulla Gogoi, a relative. Curiously, Baruah did not think it necessary to explain to the Saikias what a ‘pig heart transplant’ meant.
The Saikias say they paid Baruah Rs. 1, 00,000 for the operation.
Despite several attempts Baruah could not be contacted. His hospital is heavilv guarded and no outsider is allowed access.
Health Minister Kamla Kalita, in his statement to the State Assembly, said on 23 December that the Government ‘was examining all legal possibilities so that adequate action can be taken against him for trying to sansationalise the issue’.
Three doctors who had claimed to have transplanted pigs organs in a patient were arrested late on Thursday (9 January) night. The doctors, Dhani Ram Baruah, Jonathan Ho and C. J. James, were produced before the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Kamrup on Friday where their bail pleas were rejected.
The magistrate said in his order that such transplantations were not allowed under the provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, The case was registered under Section 304, IPC, and Section 18 of the Act.
Counsel for Dr. Baruah said that his (Dr. Baruah’s) action was not covered by the organ transplantation act as it covered human organs while in this case, pig’s organs were involved. The transplantation was done in good faith and the consent of the relatives of the patient was obtained.
Doctors carrying out the postmortem (examination) on Purna Saikia’s body refused to give details on the grounds that the case wassub judice.
Talking to the reporter fromIndia Todayafter transplanting a pig’s heart into Purna Saikia, Dr. Dhani Ram Baruah said, "Medical science has taken a giant leap forward." Baruah claimed he used a secret solution of chemicals that blinds the immune system. Saikia’s heart was treated with the magic solution for 30 minutes, washed and then implanted in the 15 hour operation, Baruah explained. Baruah disowned a subsequent statement which said that he had transplanted a pig’s heart, stating that the confession was signed only because they threatened to close down his hospital if he did not do so.
India Todaylearned that Drs. Baruah and Ho have achieved infamy in the past. They implanted heart valves made of animal tissue - developed by Dr. Baruah - in 12 patients in Hong Kong in 1992. A year later six patients died. TheAsian Medical Newsreported that ‘grave concerns were expressed over the the implantation’.
When Dr. Baruah was asked about the ethics of his transplantation of the pig’s heart, he said angrily: "To hell with controversies. I will go ahead with what I am supposed to do."
The death of 32- year- old Purna Saikia following a controversial pig- to- man heart, kidney and lungs transplant surgery done by Dr. Dhani Ram Baruah along with his associates Dr. Jonathan Ho of the Hong Kong- based Prince of Wales Medical Institute and Dr. C. S. James, raises the basic issues of public morality, professional ethics and the challenges facing law enforcement agencies in a fast changing technological environment. Dr. Baruah and his colleagues have since been arrested by the local police for alleged violation of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994. Findings of the postmortem done on the body of Saikia by a medical team are not available yet.
The veracity of Dr. Baruah’s claim that the patient died a week after the operation can be proved only by the post- mortem results. Dr. Baruah has also claimed that he had the consent of the patient for the pig heart transplant but this does not absolve him of the responsibility for the serious consequences of the surgery which was plainly illegal as the law does not permit transplantation of an animal organ in a human being. On his part, Dr. Baruah has asserted that the operation was not only successful but also unique and that the patient had responded to the treatment well. He has attributed Saikia’s death to secondary causes arising from infection. The public uproar over Saikia’s death has predictably caused much embarrassment to the Government and the State Health Minister has even suspected ‘fraud’ on the part of the doctor in performing the operation.
The episode has naturally attracted worldwide attention for obvious reasons. As the eminent cardiac surgeon, who is heading the Madras Medical Mission, Dr. K. M. Cherian, says, lack of transparency on the part of medical professionals in conducting new experiments could pose a serious threat to public health. A North American organisation planned to undertake transplantation with transgenic pigs, but according to the latest information, it has postponed the experiment. The acceptance of the animal organ by the human body is yet to be fully established.
In view of the revolutionary strides made in cadaver transplantation and cardiac surgery, controversial experiments should be overseen by a technical committee of specialists to ensure that the law is not violated. Professional and government- run institutions should also be vigilant in protecting the public interest by taking penal action against unscrupulous and misguided professionals. Political intervention to protect the guilty can only harm the medical profession. The Guwahati episode should be an eye- opener as the legal and ethical issues it raises need to be addressed by the specialists and the authorities. The future of transplant surgery hinges on the response of the professional and government agencies in guiding its development on the right course.
After being released on bail, Dr. Dhani Ram Baruah claimed he would prove his achievement before the international medical community. Dr. Baruah said Puma Saikia had died seven days after the transplant operation due to bacterial infection he had acquired earlier.
He announced his plans to travel to Barcelona and Sydney to present his achievements before cardiac surgeons. He claimed that his success lay in preventing hyperacute rejection of the pig organs using his antigen- suppressing agent. He felt that his experiments with xenotransplantation should not stop just because there were chances of infectious disease being transferred to the patient. "If any unknown virus is transferred to human beings from pigs, the virologist can take care of it," he stated.
Dr. Baruah alleged that there was an international consipracy to undermine his achievement. He said he would seek the permission of the Indian Medical Council to perform more such operations.
transplant clinic and implanted a pigs heart into a human. as an aside just note the state of
medical facility in NE in 1996!!
http://www.issuesinmedicalethics.org/052mi062.html
The first Indian porcine nenotransplant (2)
The Press Guwahati (PTI) transmitted this report on 2 December 1996: In a volte face, controversial heart surgeon Dhani Ram Baruah, who claimed to have transplanted a pig’s heart to a human being on December 15 here, today denied the transplantation saying he only repaired two holes in the patient’s heart.
Official sources, quoting the doctor, said today as the holes were repaired Dr Baruah did not have too use the animal’s heart as planned earlier.
Meanwhile, the inquiry committee appointed by the Assam government to look into the controversy, today visited the Dr Baruah Heart Institute and Research Centre at Sonapur near here.
Though the doctor initially fended off the investigators, he relented when told the team was accompanied by a magistrate.
On December 18, the hospital staff did not allow the inquiry committee into the hospital. Dr Baruah also refused to meet it.
Incidentally, apart from personally telling journalists that he did transplant the pig’s heart, Dr Baruah had claimed the same in a television interview. He has invited the local medical fraternity to challenge him at the world conference of heart surgeons in Barcelona, Spain, in July, according to a local English daily,The North- East Times, today. He told the paper over telephone yesterday he planned to present his patient, Mr Purna Saikia (32), along with his papers in Barcelona if he was fit by then.
Reacting to the doubts over the authenticity of his claim, the doctor said he could keep an isolated heart of an animal beating for hours in his laboratory.
Meanwhile, the patient’s relatives complained to journalists they were not being allowed to either see him nor enter the hospital premises.
Amidst a raging controversy in medical and lay circles, the Assam government has ordered an official inquiry into whether a pig’s heart was actually transplanted into a human being at a hospital near Guwahati last Sunday.
The so- called ‘unique surgical feat’ was claimed to have been carried out successfully by Dr Dhaniram Baruah assisted by a team of 16 doctors including two veterinary surgeons at his heart institute and research centre located at Sonapur, about 25 km from Guwahati. The patient was one Puna Saikia (32) from Golaghat.
What made the event highly suspect in the eyes of most of the medical fraternity as well as the local media was that Dr Dhaniram Baruah had rung up newspapers and news agencies well before the operation asking for reporters and photographers to be present to record the ‘historic feat.’
While most of the media expressed scepticism given the elementary state of cardiac facilities available in the northeastern region, two local newspapers made a media circus out of the so- called transplant operation.
These two newspapers not only published ‘curtain raisers’ boosting Dr. Baruah a day before the operation but also published photographs of the patient and the pig on the operating table while the surgical procedure was being carried out. Pictures of the patient recovering after surgery were also published.
The published accounts, however, did not make it clear whether a pig’s heart was actually transplanted into the patient. It would appear that what was actually performed was an operation to repair a hole in the heart ventricle. Dr Baruah himself and other doctors associated with the so- called ‘transplant’ would give only evasive replies to media queries after the first reports were published by the two newspapers.
What made matters worse was that a national news agency picked up the reports in the local newspapers and circulated them both nationally and internationally.
Rival newspapers quoting other cardiac specialists here termed the ‘pig- to- man’ heart transplant operation a hoax and fraud. Dr Baruah had earlier received much all-India publicity by claiming to have invented a new type of heart valve and an artificial heart.
He was also in the news last August for confining three engineers of a medical equipment company at gunpoint in his heart institute demanding compensation of Rs. 8.5 lakh for allegedly supplying defective equipment. Following a complaint by the company, police obtained an arrest warrant for Dr. Baruah who obtained anticipatory bail. He was chargesheeted in the case at the end of November.
Reputed cardiologists here have termed Dr Baruah’s claim of having transplanted a pig’s heart into a man as a hoax and a publicity stunt.
"In the entire north- eastern region there are no facilities even to carry out an angiogram. Patients have to travel to Delhi or Madras for a heart by- pass operation. How can this man claim to have transplanted a pig’s heart into a man? What facilities does he have in his institute?" asked an eminent cardiologist.
"Such claims give a bad name to the medical profession as a whole and Indian scientists in particular," said Dr. A. K. Baruah, Principal of the Guwahati Medical College and himself an eminent cardiologist. "This is nothing but a publicity stunt." Several other cardiac specialists expressed similar views, some even questioning Dr. Dhaniram Baruah’s professional credentials.
Interestingly, the news of the pig- to- man transplant came out even as it was reported that the British government had put off the first scheduled transplants of pig organs into human beings for fear of animal viruses being carried over into humans. Alarmed by the uproar over the whole affair, the Assam Government ordered an enquiry into whether a pig’s heart was actually transplanted into a human being.
The enquiry committee, comprising Dr. Ramesh Verma, joint director of health K. N. Das and Professor of Cardiology B. K. Das of the Guwahati Medical College, visited the Dhaniram Baruah Heart Institute and Research Centre on Wednesday to begin their investigation.
They were denied entry at the gate. Dr Baruah and other doctors at the institute also refused to meet the enquiry team saying they were too busy attending to the patient.
Dr Baruah has also threatened to slap a Rs. 50 crore suit against the national news agency concerned for allegedly ‘misreporting’ the surgical procedure carried out. The agency, however, says it had reported on the basis of a press release issued by Dr. Baruah.
It is as if it had never happened. Called a fraud by the State Government, Dhani Ram Baruah withdrew his fantastic claim that he had ‘successfully transplanted the heart of a pig in a man’. Today, barely a fortnight after the outcry died down, the doctor is back to his experiments.
His guinea pig is 32- year- old Purna Saikia; whom he advertised as the recipient of a pig’s heart. Today, Saikia lies unconscious in ‘Heart City’, Baruah’s heart care centre at Sonapur, 20 km from Guwahati. Baruah has got the family to sign another ‘bond’ which permits him to perform a second transplant of a pig’s heart.
According to his relatives, Purna was quite hale and hearty before the mysterious 12- hour operation that Baruah conducted on 15 December. "On 15 December, we were treated to a meal of pork and rice," recalls Someshwar. "The hospital cook told us the meat was from the pig killed for the heart."
Today, Saikia’s family is worried. "On 21 December we were informed that his condition had become serious and that he had lost consciousness. We have not been permitted to see him again," says Someshwar, Purna’s eldest brother.
The Saikias are middle- class farmers from Golaghat in Upper Assam. Purna is the third of five brothers. Afflicted with a congenital heart problem, he seems to have been the victim of typical apathy with which doctors regard poor patients.
It was a newspaper advertisement which drew the Saikias to ‘Heart City’. "After a preliminary check- up, Baruah admitted him and a few days later we signed the first bond for the operation," says Prafulla Gogoi, a relative. Curiously, Baruah did not think it necessary to explain to the Saikias what a ‘pig heart transplant’ meant.
The Saikias say they paid Baruah Rs. 1, 00,000 for the operation.
Despite several attempts Baruah could not be contacted. His hospital is heavilv guarded and no outsider is allowed access.
Health Minister Kamla Kalita, in his statement to the State Assembly, said on 23 December that the Government ‘was examining all legal possibilities so that adequate action can be taken against him for trying to sansationalise the issue’.
Three doctors who had claimed to have transplanted pigs organs in a patient were arrested late on Thursday (9 January) night. The doctors, Dhani Ram Baruah, Jonathan Ho and C. J. James, were produced before the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Kamrup on Friday where their bail pleas were rejected.
The magistrate said in his order that such transplantations were not allowed under the provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, The case was registered under Section 304, IPC, and Section 18 of the Act.
Counsel for Dr. Baruah said that his (Dr. Baruah’s) action was not covered by the organ transplantation act as it covered human organs while in this case, pig’s organs were involved. The transplantation was done in good faith and the consent of the relatives of the patient was obtained.
Doctors carrying out the postmortem (examination) on Purna Saikia’s body refused to give details on the grounds that the case wassub judice.
Talking to the reporter fromIndia Todayafter transplanting a pig’s heart into Purna Saikia, Dr. Dhani Ram Baruah said, "Medical science has taken a giant leap forward." Baruah claimed he used a secret solution of chemicals that blinds the immune system. Saikia’s heart was treated with the magic solution for 30 minutes, washed and then implanted in the 15 hour operation, Baruah explained. Baruah disowned a subsequent statement which said that he had transplanted a pig’s heart, stating that the confession was signed only because they threatened to close down his hospital if he did not do so.
India Todaylearned that Drs. Baruah and Ho have achieved infamy in the past. They implanted heart valves made of animal tissue - developed by Dr. Baruah - in 12 patients in Hong Kong in 1992. A year later six patients died. TheAsian Medical Newsreported that ‘grave concerns were expressed over the the implantation’.
When Dr. Baruah was asked about the ethics of his transplantation of the pig’s heart, he said angrily: "To hell with controversies. I will go ahead with what I am supposed to do."
The death of 32- year- old Purna Saikia following a controversial pig- to- man heart, kidney and lungs transplant surgery done by Dr. Dhani Ram Baruah along with his associates Dr. Jonathan Ho of the Hong Kong- based Prince of Wales Medical Institute and Dr. C. S. James, raises the basic issues of public morality, professional ethics and the challenges facing law enforcement agencies in a fast changing technological environment. Dr. Baruah and his colleagues have since been arrested by the local police for alleged violation of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994. Findings of the postmortem done on the body of Saikia by a medical team are not available yet.
The veracity of Dr. Baruah’s claim that the patient died a week after the operation can be proved only by the post- mortem results. Dr. Baruah has also claimed that he had the consent of the patient for the pig heart transplant but this does not absolve him of the responsibility for the serious consequences of the surgery which was plainly illegal as the law does not permit transplantation of an animal organ in a human being. On his part, Dr. Baruah has asserted that the operation was not only successful but also unique and that the patient had responded to the treatment well. He has attributed Saikia’s death to secondary causes arising from infection. The public uproar over Saikia’s death has predictably caused much embarrassment to the Government and the State Health Minister has even suspected ‘fraud’ on the part of the doctor in performing the operation.
The episode has naturally attracted worldwide attention for obvious reasons. As the eminent cardiac surgeon, who is heading the Madras Medical Mission, Dr. K. M. Cherian, says, lack of transparency on the part of medical professionals in conducting new experiments could pose a serious threat to public health. A North American organisation planned to undertake transplantation with transgenic pigs, but according to the latest information, it has postponed the experiment. The acceptance of the animal organ by the human body is yet to be fully established.
In view of the revolutionary strides made in cadaver transplantation and cardiac surgery, controversial experiments should be overseen by a technical committee of specialists to ensure that the law is not violated. Professional and government- run institutions should also be vigilant in protecting the public interest by taking penal action against unscrupulous and misguided professionals. Political intervention to protect the guilty can only harm the medical profession. The Guwahati episode should be an eye- opener as the legal and ethical issues it raises need to be addressed by the specialists and the authorities. The future of transplant surgery hinges on the response of the professional and government agencies in guiding its development on the right course.
After being released on bail, Dr. Dhani Ram Baruah claimed he would prove his achievement before the international medical community. Dr. Baruah said Puma Saikia had died seven days after the transplant operation due to bacterial infection he had acquired earlier.
He announced his plans to travel to Barcelona and Sydney to present his achievements before cardiac surgeons. He claimed that his success lay in preventing hyperacute rejection of the pig organs using his antigen- suppressing agent. He felt that his experiments with xenotransplantation should not stop just because there were chances of infectious disease being transferred to the patient. "If any unknown virus is transferred to human beings from pigs, the virologist can take care of it," he stated.
Dr. Baruah alleged that there was an international consipracy to undermine his achievement. He said he would seek the permission of the Indian Medical Council to perform more such operations.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
not content with cardiology he went on to develop a cure for cancer too...
you can see his photo here...
http://www.assamtimes.org/Knowledge-Dev ... t/785.html
Addressing a press conference in the city on Thursday, renowned heart specialist and applied human genetic engineer Dr Dhaniram Baruah said only genetic engineering is there to help the doctors cure cancer.
She is Sugam Konwar from Rajasthan. This 48-year-old lady has been suffering from myeloid dysplastic syndrome for the last four years. Her son Mahinder Sekhawat said his mother was rushed to several prominent hospitals in Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur. But only to be discharged. But she is gradually getting a recovering after being attended by Dr Baruah.
Mushraffuddin Ahmed from Dhubri has been suffering from bone cancer in his legs. He got his left leg dissected to get rid of this incurable disease. But recurrence came to upset him in his left leg. The nine-month treatment at the B Barooah Cancer Institute has failed to cure him. He had no option but to rush to Dr Dhaniram Baruah on 20th of November and after three days of treatment he is recovering gradually.
Several patents attended by Dr Baruah who participated in the press conference narrated their experiences before the reporters. Notably, if what Dr Baruah claims is proved to be true, it will be a great invention for several incurable diseases.
you can see his photo here...
http://www.assamtimes.org/Knowledge-Dev ... t/785.html
Addressing a press conference in the city on Thursday, renowned heart specialist and applied human genetic engineer Dr Dhaniram Baruah said only genetic engineering is there to help the doctors cure cancer.
She is Sugam Konwar from Rajasthan. This 48-year-old lady has been suffering from myeloid dysplastic syndrome for the last four years. Her son Mahinder Sekhawat said his mother was rushed to several prominent hospitals in Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur. But only to be discharged. But she is gradually getting a recovering after being attended by Dr Baruah.
Mushraffuddin Ahmed from Dhubri has been suffering from bone cancer in his legs. He got his left leg dissected to get rid of this incurable disease. But recurrence came to upset him in his left leg. The nine-month treatment at the B Barooah Cancer Institute has failed to cure him. He had no option but to rush to Dr Dhaniram Baruah on 20th of November and after three days of treatment he is recovering gradually.
Several patents attended by Dr Baruah who participated in the press conference narrated their experiences before the reporters. Notably, if what Dr Baruah claims is proved to be true, it will be a great invention for several incurable diseases.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
excerpt from IE: cant have been a total fraud, having a legitimate mbbs degree from a Govt run medical college,
practised in UK and sweden.....
Forty-eight-year old Dr Baruah, an MBBS from Dibrugarh, trained in cardiac surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. After putting in a few years of practice at the London Chest Hospital and Karlonska Institute, Sweden, he set up a cardiac centre in Abu Dabi in 1985. And later, took time out to invent artificial biological heart valves and, what he calls,`Baruah 21', ``a permanently implantable biological heart''.
In one of the chapters, `Xenotransplantation in our Institute', Dr Baruah says the heart-lung transplantations from pigs to human at his institute were carried out after 11 years of ``painstaking research and experiments''. What follows is an experiment-by-experiment progress regarding pigs, monkeys and goats. The explanation in medical jargon means little to non-medics. What is clear, however, is that details of all his laboratory experiments and their success are known only to Dr Baruah.
The crucial chapter, `Clinical Xenotransplantations Performed on January 1, 1997', begins with the medical history of Saikia, who was first brought to Dr Baruah in November 1995. Saikia suffered from ventral septal defect and high pulmonary vascular resistance with left to rig shunt. Dr Baruah says he suggested a heart-lung transplantation using a pig, since a human donor would be hard to find.
A year after his first visit, Saikia returned to Dr Baruah'sinstitute. And on December 15, 1996, the doctor performed a minor operation on Saikia. However, the latter's condition did not improve and Dr Baruah told Saikia's relatives that he was not going to make it. ``His brother insisted that the pig heart-lung transplantation be undertaken,'' Dr Baruah claims. Again, the book does not explain why Saikia's condition worsened after the first operation.
On December 31, 1996, writes Dr Baruah, after collecting 12 units of blood and ``sacrificing'' 12 pigs, he began the operation. Saikia's organs were removed and pig kidney, heart and lung were transplanted into him. Till January 3, the doctor claims, Saikia did well. ``However, later next day, his condition started deteriorating. His chest was reopened to facilitate transplantation of liver, pancreas and small intestine.'' This time the donor was reportedly a 20-kg pig. Two days later, on January 7, Saikia was declared dead. And three days later, Dr Baruah was arrested.
In the ensuing drama with the police andhealth officials, Dr Baruah claims, all the evidence -- ``Saikia's explanted organs, case history, X-rays, laboratory data, videotapes, slides, photographs'' -- was taken away and never returned.
Questioning the grounds on which he was arrested, Dr Baruah says: ``The Transplantation Act restricts the removal, storage and transplantation of human organs and does not apply to the recipient. Xenotransplantation is an entirely different issue and no law was ever made anywhere nor can any law be enacted to regulate xenotransplantation.''
Throughout the book, Dr Baruah lashes out at doctors for failing to recognise his genius and at the administration and police for ``victimising'' him. He blames them for the fire at his hospital and the snapping of his telephone connection, and flays the ban on him conducting any experiments. Dr Baruah also claims he has suffered a loss of Rs 3,820 crore as a result of the controversy.
practised in UK and sweden.....
Forty-eight-year old Dr Baruah, an MBBS from Dibrugarh, trained in cardiac surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast. After putting in a few years of practice at the London Chest Hospital and Karlonska Institute, Sweden, he set up a cardiac centre in Abu Dabi in 1985. And later, took time out to invent artificial biological heart valves and, what he calls,`Baruah 21', ``a permanently implantable biological heart''.
In one of the chapters, `Xenotransplantation in our Institute', Dr Baruah says the heart-lung transplantations from pigs to human at his institute were carried out after 11 years of ``painstaking research and experiments''. What follows is an experiment-by-experiment progress regarding pigs, monkeys and goats. The explanation in medical jargon means little to non-medics. What is clear, however, is that details of all his laboratory experiments and their success are known only to Dr Baruah.
The crucial chapter, `Clinical Xenotransplantations Performed on January 1, 1997', begins with the medical history of Saikia, who was first brought to Dr Baruah in November 1995. Saikia suffered from ventral septal defect and high pulmonary vascular resistance with left to rig shunt. Dr Baruah says he suggested a heart-lung transplantation using a pig, since a human donor would be hard to find.
A year after his first visit, Saikia returned to Dr Baruah'sinstitute. And on December 15, 1996, the doctor performed a minor operation on Saikia. However, the latter's condition did not improve and Dr Baruah told Saikia's relatives that he was not going to make it. ``His brother insisted that the pig heart-lung transplantation be undertaken,'' Dr Baruah claims. Again, the book does not explain why Saikia's condition worsened after the first operation.
On December 31, 1996, writes Dr Baruah, after collecting 12 units of blood and ``sacrificing'' 12 pigs, he began the operation. Saikia's organs were removed and pig kidney, heart and lung were transplanted into him. Till January 3, the doctor claims, Saikia did well. ``However, later next day, his condition started deteriorating. His chest was reopened to facilitate transplantation of liver, pancreas and small intestine.'' This time the donor was reportedly a 20-kg pig. Two days later, on January 7, Saikia was declared dead. And three days later, Dr Baruah was arrested.
In the ensuing drama with the police andhealth officials, Dr Baruah claims, all the evidence -- ``Saikia's explanted organs, case history, X-rays, laboratory data, videotapes, slides, photographs'' -- was taken away and never returned.
Questioning the grounds on which he was arrested, Dr Baruah says: ``The Transplantation Act restricts the removal, storage and transplantation of human organs and does not apply to the recipient. Xenotransplantation is an entirely different issue and no law was ever made anywhere nor can any law be enacted to regulate xenotransplantation.''
Throughout the book, Dr Baruah lashes out at doctors for failing to recognise his genius and at the administration and police for ``victimising'' him. He blames them for the fire at his hospital and the snapping of his telephone connection, and flays the ban on him conducting any experiments. Dr Baruah also claims he has suffered a loss of Rs 3,820 crore as a result of the controversy.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
FDA comes under Cong scanner over Ranbaxy issue
New York (PTI): The US drug regulator FDA, which has charged Ranbaxy with selling unsafe medicines in the country, has come under the Congress scanner and will be probed for its conduct in approving the Indian pharma major's products and other potential violations in the matter.
A Congressional Committee has said that it would examine Ranbaxy's drug approvals in the US and potential violations of manufacturing regulations, a media report said.
Besides, the House Energy and Commerce Committee would also "look at why the FDA continued to approve medicines made by the company and allow shipments into the US while it was questioning Ranbaxy's manufacturing processes," the Star Ledger newspaper reported.
The report said that the Committee "wants to find out whether the FDA knowingly allowed unsafe and ineffective medicine to enter the US."
The inquiry stems from a federal court filing by the US Department of Justice, where it has been alleged that there have been "a pattern of systematic fraudulent conduct, including submissions by Ranbaxy to the FDA that contain false and fabricated information about stability and bio equivalence of the company's generic medications."
The Justice Department has also cited a failure by Ranbaxy to report in a timely fashion it distributed drugs that did not meet proper specifications, and has accused the company of concealing violations of good manufacturing practice regulations from FDA.
"If these allegations are true, Ranbaxy has imperiled the safety of Americans in a manner similar to the generic drug scandal we uncovered twenty years ago," the Star Ledger report quoted House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell as saying.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Indian Engineer develops painless needle that mimics mosquito bite.
Indian and Japanese engineers have developed a "microneedle" that causes no pain on being inserted in the skin as it mimics the way a female mosquito sucks blood.
Contrary to popular belief, a mosquito bite does not hurt. It is the anticoagulant saliva that the creature injects to stop the blood from clotting that causes inflammation and pain.
The new biocompatible microneedle has been designed by Suman Chakraborty of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur and Kazuyoshi Tsuchiya of Tokai University in Kanagawa, New Scientist reported.
A female mosquito sucks blood by flexing and relaxing certain muscles, which creates suction that draws blood into its mouth. In the needle, the sucking action is provided by a microelectromechanical pump.
The new needle has an inner diameter of around 25 microns and an external diameter of 60 microns, which is about the same size as a mosquito's mouth part. Its size and the fact that it works by suction makes it painless. A conventional syringe needle has an outer diameter of around 900 microns.
In contrast to previous microneedles, which were made of silicon dioxide, the new device is robust as it is made of stronger titanium alloys, which dramatically reduces the risk of it snapping during injections.
The needle is also strong enough to penetrate as far as three mm into skin and reach capillary blood vessels and can extract five microlitres of blood per second. This volume is sufficient for measuring blood-sugar levels in diabetics using a glucose sensor that can be attached to the needle in a "wristwatch" design.
The design uses a shape-memory alloy to drive the needle into skin and a micro-pump for delivering drugs. The latter could be used to inject insulin (or other drugs) into the patient when required.
Chakraborty and Tsuchiya expect to commercialise their needle, but there are still some challenges to overcome such as cost and scaling up of the fabrication method.
Indian and Japanese engineers have developed a "microneedle" that causes no pain on being inserted in the skin as it mimics the way a female mosquito sucks blood.
Contrary to popular belief, a mosquito bite does not hurt. It is the anticoagulant saliva that the creature injects to stop the blood from clotting that causes inflammation and pain.
The new biocompatible microneedle has been designed by Suman Chakraborty of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur and Kazuyoshi Tsuchiya of Tokai University in Kanagawa, New Scientist reported.
A female mosquito sucks blood by flexing and relaxing certain muscles, which creates suction that draws blood into its mouth. In the needle, the sucking action is provided by a microelectromechanical pump.
The new needle has an inner diameter of around 25 microns and an external diameter of 60 microns, which is about the same size as a mosquito's mouth part. Its size and the fact that it works by suction makes it painless. A conventional syringe needle has an outer diameter of around 900 microns.
In contrast to previous microneedles, which were made of silicon dioxide, the new device is robust as it is made of stronger titanium alloys, which dramatically reduces the risk of it snapping during injections.
The needle is also strong enough to penetrate as far as three mm into skin and reach capillary blood vessels and can extract five microlitres of blood per second. This volume is sufficient for measuring blood-sugar levels in diabetics using a glucose sensor that can be attached to the needle in a "wristwatch" design.
The design uses a shape-memory alloy to drive the needle into skin and a micro-pump for delivering drugs. The latter could be used to inject insulin (or other drugs) into the patient when required.
Chakraborty and Tsuchiya expect to commercialise their needle, but there are still some challenges to overcome such as cost and scaling up of the fabrication method.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
India's first heart-implant training centre
Medtronic, a US-based medical technology service provider, opened its first therapy and procedure training centre (TPTC) in South Asia, in Chennai Saturday.
A recent report in the premier medical journal The Lancet has said that by 2010, 60 percent of the world's heart patients will be in India. The majority of these patients will suffer from cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure and coronary artery diseases.
Besides hands-on training, there will also be simulator-equipped class rooms at the centre.
"India has a small number of electro-physiologists (just about 50) who implant high-end devices like CRTs and ICDs to manage heart failures and reduce mortality due to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)."
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/aug/12sd1.htm
If he can really get it down to Rs 35K, that alone would be
This type of approach is what is needed to address the utter disregard, disdain and apathy the government has for health care.
Anyone has experience of the Narayan group?
Looks much better than Massa land where you pay or die, no in between.
If he can really get it down to Rs 35K, that alone would be
This type of approach is what is needed to address the utter disregard, disdain and apathy the government has for health care.
Anyone has experience of the Narayan group?
Looks much better than Massa land where you pay or die, no in between.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Indian babies used by pharmaceutical companies as guinea pigs, 49 children die
--------------
Infant deaths: Ramadoss orders probe
19 Aug 2008, 0940 hrs IST,TNN
NEW DELHI: Union health minister A Ramadoss has asked AIIMS director T D Dogra to order a high-level probe into the death of 49 children during clinical trials in the institute.
The move came after the Congress party earlier on Monday demanded an independent inquiry into the unusually high number of infant deaths in clinical trials for new drugs at AIIMS and suggested that such tests be put on hold during the pendency of probe.
"It is a matter of great concern that 49 babies have died over the past two-and-a-half years," party spokesman Manish Tiwari told reporters at a briefing. "The practise of using infants like guinea pigs for drug testing must end." Tiwari said, "India appears to be a cheaper destination than anywhere else in the world for such trials" and pointed out that the number of babies involved in China were fewer.
Deploring the appalling records in the institutions here, he said, "The ethical guidelines have been grossly violated."
--------------
Infant deaths: Ramadoss orders probe
19 Aug 2008, 0940 hrs IST,TNN
NEW DELHI: Union health minister A Ramadoss has asked AIIMS director T D Dogra to order a high-level probe into the death of 49 children during clinical trials in the institute.
The move came after the Congress party earlier on Monday demanded an independent inquiry into the unusually high number of infant deaths in clinical trials for new drugs at AIIMS and suggested that such tests be put on hold during the pendency of probe.
"It is a matter of great concern that 49 babies have died over the past two-and-a-half years," party spokesman Manish Tiwari told reporters at a briefing. "The practise of using infants like guinea pigs for drug testing must end." Tiwari said, "India appears to be a cheaper destination than anywhere else in the world for such trials" and pointed out that the number of babies involved in China were fewer.
Deploring the appalling records in the institutions here, he said, "The ethical guidelines have been grossly violated."
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Nayak
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Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Ramadoss is a nitwit. He was busy picking on bollywood and raking up controversy on on-screen smoking rather than trying to improve the pathetic conditions at AIIMS.
A mental midget at it's best.
A mental midget at it's best.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
NayakNayak wrote:Ramadoss is a nitwit. He was busy picking on bollywood and raking up controversy on on-screen smoking rather than trying to improve the pathetic conditions at AIIMS.
A mental midget at it's best.
He is not just a mental midget but very egotistical and arrogant.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&ncl= ... en&topic=b
UPDATE 1-US FDA bans dozens of Ranbaxy-made generic drugs
Reuters - 28 minutes ago
By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - US health officials have banned dozens of medications made by Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd (RANB. ...OTC:RBXLY
Ranbaxy Imports of 30 Drugs May Be Barred, US Says (Update2)
Bloomberg - 1 hour ago
By Larry Liebert Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- More than 30 generic drugs made by Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. will be blocked at US borders because of manufacturing ...OTC:RBXLY
FDA warns on Ranbaxy Indian-made drugs
MarketWatch - 1 hour ago
By Val Brickates Kennedy BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it has determined that two Indian manufacturing plants ...OTC:RBXLY
FDA Bans Import of Meds From Major Drug Maker
ABC News - 57 minutes ago
By LISA STARK In a major drug safety alert, the Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that the US can refuse to import dozens of generic drugs ...
FDA Halts Imports of Many Ranbaxy Drugs, but Reassures Consumers
Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - 34 minutes ago
Mounting concerns about the quality of drugs manufactured by the big generics supplier Ranbaxy came to a head today, as the FDA took the tough step of ...OTC:RBXLY
FDA blocks imports from India's generic drug giant
The Associated Press - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is closing US borders to more than 30 generic drugs — including popular antibiotics and cholesterol medicines — made by ...
FDA to Limit Ranbaxy's US Sales
Wall Street Journal - 1 hour ago
By ALICIA MUNDY and JOHN R. WILKE WASHINGTON -- The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to limit imports and sales by Ranbaxy Inc., India's largest ...OTC:RBXLY
FDA Issues Warnings & Import Alert To Ranbaxy
Pharmalot, NJ - 1 hour ago
By Ed Silverman // September 16th, 2008 // 2:56 pm The agency is getting tougher with the generic drugmaker, which is already cited by federal prosecutors ...OTC:RBXLY
FDA warns drug company in India
United Press International - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The US Food and Drug Administration has issued warning letters and an import alert for generic drugs produced by Ranbaxy ...OTC:RBXLY
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
No products made by Ranbaxy in India can now be imported to USA. FDA will not approve any new products made by Ranbaxy till all deficiencies are resolved. I have seen the warning letter, it is nasty.
More later..
More later..
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Drugs made at Ranbaxy's NJ plant can still be sold. However hold on approval all new products is going to hurt Ranbaxy badly. Wait and watch what will happen to the merger deal.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Were there actual real issues or is this another case of the US pharma mafia trying to stifle cheaper competition?
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
devi shetty is quite a revered name in my part of the world.Tanaji wrote:http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/aug/12sd1.htm
If he can really get it down to Rs 35K, that alone would be
This type of approach is what is needed to address the utter disregard, disdain and apathy the government has for health care.
Anyone has experience of the Narayan group?
Looks much better than Massa land where you pay or die, no in between.
along with his competence, his code of ethics is what makes him so famous. rumour has it he left the bm birla heart institute because of his refusal to accept fees in failed operations which was opposed by the administration; bad example and all that.
here is the website of his kolkata clinic, which has gathered some good reputation per my friends and relatives who go there.
http://www.rtiics.org/
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
It may be a mix of both.Tanaji wrote:Were there actual real issues or is this another case of the US pharma mafia trying to stifle cheaper competition?
Real bad news for Ranbaxy is yet to come. JMT.
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Nayak
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Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Where is that idiot ramadoss ? The figures are damning, come-on!! we should not be in this state !!500,000 women die in pregnancy, childbirth: UNICEF
21 Sep 2008, 1330 hrs IST,REUTERS
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GENEVA: More than half a million women still die each year in pregnancy and childbirth, often bleeding to death because no emergency obstetrical care is available, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said.
Despite modest progress, particularly in Asia, the global maternal mortality toll remains stubbornly stable due to a lack of financial resources and political will, it said. More than 99 percent of the estimated 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2005 occurred in developing countries, half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, it said in a report entitled "Progress for Children: A Report Card on Maternal Maternity".
"One of the critical bottlenecks has always been access to highly skilled health workers required to deliver emergency obstetrical care, particularly caesarian sections," Peter Salama UNICEF's chief of health, told a news briefing. Around 50 million births in the developing world, or about 4 in 10 of all births worldwide, are not attended by trained personnel, according to the report.
Haemorrhaging is the leading cause of maternal death in Africa and Asia, causing one in three deaths, it said. Infections, hypertensive disorders, complications of abortion, obstructed labour or HIV/AIDS are other causes. Such complications can be easily treated in a health system whose facilities are staffed with skilled personnel to handle emergencies around the clock, but disparities persist, it said.
"The lifetime risk of maternal death in the developing world as a whole is 1 in 76, compared with 1 in 8,000 in the industrialised world," UNICEF said. The riskiest place to give birth is Niger, where the risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth over the course of a woman's lifetime is one in seven, it said.
In Sierra Leone it is 1 in 8. But developing countries including Sri Lanka and Mozambique have succeeded in reducing maternal mortality rates, it said. A combination of family planning, training skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetrical care and post-natal care is the key to reducing maternal mortality, according to the agency.
At the current average reduction rate of less than one per cent a year, the world will miss the goal of reducing maternal mortality rates by 75 percent between 1990 and 2015, to less than 150,000, one of the Millennium Development Goals, it said.
"The time is right. We now know exactly what to do for maternal mortality reduction to make this one of the next big issues in global health," Salama said. Programmes to combat three major epidemics -- HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- now receive the required international attention and billions in funding, he said.
"But maternal mortaility and child mortality do not yet receive the attention that the scale of the problem deserves," he said. An additional $10 billion would be needed each year to combat both child and maternal mortality, according to Salama.
UNICEF said last week that more than 9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2007, down slightly from a year before, but a huge gap remains between rich and poor countries.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/5000 ... 509357.cms
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Talk on the street is couple of large distributors/Retail chains have decided not to take any Indian manufactured products any more...this may get ugly.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Judge for yourself. Looks to be a case of suspect management at one manufacturing location given that the same location was issued a warning in 2006.Tanaji wrote:Were there actual real issues or is this another case of the US pharma mafia trying to stifle cheaper competition?
FDA warning letters
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
How to Get Free Surgery: Fly to India.
The mainstreaming of medical tourism is about to take another baby step.
Starting in January, a Wisconsin company called Serigraph will waive employees’ copays and coinsurance for certain procedures — provided the employees fly to India for the procedures.
For expensive, non-emergency procedures, the math is pretty simple. Knee replacement surgery that costs between $60,000 and $70,000 in the United States can be done in India for $8,000 to $10,000, a WellPoint spokeswoman told the Strib. So the company can pay to send the employee to a fancy tourist hospital in India, waive all the copays, and still save money.
As we noted earlier this year, the number of Americans actually going abroad for major medical procedures has remained small, and it’s easy for the hype to get ahead of the reality. Still, when we read reports like this one, it’s hard not to think that more companies will look to offshore some employee health care.
Serigraph, a specialty graphics company with 650 employees, is self-insured, and WellPoint manages the company’s benefits. UnitedHealth is investigating adding medical tourism to benefit packages, the Strib says.
The mainstreaming of medical tourism is about to take another baby step.
Starting in January, a Wisconsin company called Serigraph will waive employees’ copays and coinsurance for certain procedures — provided the employees fly to India for the procedures.
For expensive, non-emergency procedures, the math is pretty simple. Knee replacement surgery that costs between $60,000 and $70,000 in the United States can be done in India for $8,000 to $10,000, a WellPoint spokeswoman told the Strib. So the company can pay to send the employee to a fancy tourist hospital in India, waive all the copays, and still save money.
As we noted earlier this year, the number of Americans actually going abroad for major medical procedures has remained small, and it’s easy for the hype to get ahead of the reality. Still, when we read reports like this one, it’s hard not to think that more companies will look to offshore some employee health care.
Serigraph, a specialty graphics company with 650 employees, is self-insured, and WellPoint manages the company’s benefits. UnitedHealth is investigating adding medical tourism to benefit packages, the Strib says.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
afaik the merger deal is done. the japanese mgmt have to carry the baton now. the singhs
can retire and not have to work another day I guess.
can retire and not have to work another day I guess.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Can anyone tell me if India is making any progress at all towards Ramdoss's promises as given here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNe ... 8820070301
The target seems very achievable and I really would like some news as to progress rather than a debate about the Ramdoss ego !
Also, what about infant malnutrition ? Some years ago there was a furious debate over whether weight should be used as the sole determinant in ascertaining this. Don't know where it went.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNe ... 8820070301
The target seems very achievable and I really would like some news as to progress rather than a debate about the Ramdoss ego !
Also, what about infant malnutrition ? Some years ago there was a furious debate over whether weight should be used as the sole determinant in ascertaining this. Don't know where it went.
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Arya Sumantra
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Re: Indian Health Care Industry
World's First Awake Cardiac Bypass & Valve Surgery done in India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPBdSNMn ... re=related
This would need lot of guts from patients i guess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPBdSNMn ... re=related
This would need lot of guts from patients i guess.
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Arya Sumantra
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Re: Indian Health Care Industry
State of the Heart: A Medical Tourist's True Story of Lifesaving Surgery in India
A book written on medical tourism in India. There are several blogs by the same author and some articles by US media on medical tourism to India on the link.
A book written on medical tourism in India. There are several blogs by the same author and some articles by US media on medical tourism to India on the link.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Seems there is a spate of cardiac-related stories.
Robotic heart replacement surgery at Chennai hospital
Robotic heart replacement surgery at Chennai hospital
Chettinad Healthcity in Kancheepuram district in Tamil Nadu is the only centre in Asia which could perform robotic heart replacement surgery, preferred in the US and Germany, Director of the Institute of Cardio Vascular Disease and Robotic Surgery Centre at Chettinad HealthCity, R Ravi Kumar told reporters here.
The new leading edge technology was also available at the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre and All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, the surgeon said.
Citing the response to the new technology by Indian surgeons, Kumar said 40 such operations had been performed in the Chettinad Healthcity alone in 10 months.
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Rare cardiac surgery, this time at Kochi
Re: Indian Health Care Industry
Heart transplant goes interstate and saves two
An inter-state heart transplant involving Manipal Hospital in Bangalore and Frontier Lifeline in Chennai here on Sunday, has not only saved the life of a police constable, but also that of a Tanzanian patient.
When a 28-year-old software engineer in Bangalore was declared brain dead on Thursday, his family donated his organs including his liver and kidneys. However, a match for his heart was not found. The Manipal Hospital, then contacted Frontier Lifeline in Chennai, who agreed to harvest and transplant the organ.
“The Karnataka government has a law which states that no organ should go waste. If they don’t have a recipient in their hospital, they can ask any other hospital in Karnataka.
But, they could not find a match at that point and they contacted us,’’ said Dr K M Cherian, chief managing director of Frontier.
A team from Frontier Lifeline was flown in to Bangalore on Sunday on a special chartered aircraft – Shajas Air Charter - where they harvested the organ and flew back with it. The recipient, a 34-year-old constable from Chennai had been admitted to Frontier four times during the last three months for heart failure. However, he was called in on Sunday and the heart was transplanted.
“The process which involved harvesting the heart in Bangalore and transplanting it in Chennai took just 2 hours and 40 minutes, largely thanks to the excellent cooperation from the Chennai traffic police, who transported it from the airport to our hospital in Mogapair in just 10 minutes,’’ said Dr Cherian.
But that was not all. Though the constable’s heart had only damaged muscles, his valves were still intact.
These were used in a homograft valve replacement on a Tanzanian patient the same day. “The heart we got from Bangalore transformed two lives. Many hospitals perform cadaveric kidney transplants, in which the hearts go unused,’’ Dr Cherian said.