Hair transplant kills Chennai medico one day later

A simple hair transplant surgery has claimed the life of a final year MBBS student in Chennai.

The incident has sparked a major backlash, especially after it was discovered that the salon had a license only for hair cutting and styling, but was conducting minor surgeries without any requisite clearance.

Santosh Kumar, a final year MBBS student at the Madras Medical College died on May 17, but the details of his tragic death only emerged on June 7. It is now understood that the young medical student died due to complications arising out of an unmanaged allergy to anaesthesia. 

Santosh got his surgery done at the Advanced Robotic Hair Transplant Centre in Nungambakkam, which now has been shut by authorities. The entire incident might have gone unnoticed had students at the Madras Medical College not pressed the Tamil Nadu Medical Council for an investigation.

The transplant was done by Dr Hariprasad Kasturi, an anaesthetist, and Dr A Vineeth Suryakumar, an MBBS who graduated from a college in China.

"We have issued notices to them. We have asked Dr Hariprasad why he did not stay in the salon till the procedure was completed. We have asked Dr Vineeth how he performed the surgery without being qualified. Hair transplant is a surgery and Vineeth is not a surgeon," Tamil Nadu Medical Council president Dr K Senthil told Times of India.