A woman yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Office of Permanent Secretary for Public Health overseeing Wiang Sa and Nan hospitals for Bt1.5 million in compensation, claiming the hospitals' maltreatment led to her 68yearold mother's death.
Following the woman's complaints, the Nan Hospital director insisted the probe found the dental treatment, blamed for the allegedly fatal mouth infection, was performed according to professional standards.
Panisa Chaikhrong, 40, said her mother, Son Reunnoi, had a severe headache last August and a Wiang Sa Hospital doctor said she had low red blood cells and urinary tract infection and transferred her to Nan Hospital.
At Nan Hospital, Son was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia and urinary tract infection and admitted to a dental cleaning procedure to prevent mouth infection, she said. However, Son developed gum bleeding and infected wounds inside her mouth. Her condition worsened, prompting the hospital to forward her to Chiang Mai University's hospital on September 9 last year, Panisa said.
The university hospital couldn't save Son because, being an old person with aplastic anaemia, she couldn't undergo surgery and succumbed to the blood infection resulting from a fungi infection in mouth, Panisa said.
After Son's death on September 16, Panisa said she tried to contact Nan Hospital, as she blamed the dental procedure for her mom's death. But the hospital insisted it didn't carry out any dental cleaning procedure on Son and the patient records did not match up, she said. Panisa decided to file the lawsuit before the oneyear statute of limitations was up.
Nan Hospital director Dr Niwatchai Sujaritjan said a case probing committee, chaired by the Public Health Region 6 InspectorGeneral and joined by two legal experts, had summoned some 10 dentists, doctors and medical staff related to this patient's care.
They found the dentists carried out the procedure to professional standards, he said. He emphasised the patient didn't die at Nan Hospital but was sent to Chiang Mai hospital where she was treated for 78 days before succumbing to the illness. He said that during Son's time in Nan Hospital there was no surgery or risky treatment carried out on her. He added that the two dentists who treated Son had moved out of Nan Hospital.