Bogus doctor causes death of infant

CHANDIGARH: Anil Kumar Yadav and Sangeeta Yadav have lost the joy of parenthood to a fake degree. The Sector 26 couple had entrusted a Manimajrabased ‘doctor’ with the health of their unborn child. What they did not know, however, was that the high-sounding ‘Ayurveda Ratna’ and ‘Vaidya Visharad’ (1985) qualifications the medic boasted are not recognised.
The Yadavs first visited Ranjana Sood’s clinic last December.They claim she prescribed tablets costing Rs 120 on confirming Sangeeta’s pregnancy but did not issue a receipt. Later, she wrote out a prescription for an ultra-sound test and 10 Pregnidoxin tablets.
On June 14, 2002, Ranjana gave Sangeeta two injections to increase her labour pains. When the latter’s condition deteriorated, Ranjana informed the couple that premature delivery was necessary. The child was born around 3:05 pm the same day and died later.
On June 16, Ranjana signed another slip referring the child to PGI while accepting it was born prematurely. She also signed a receipt for Rs 2,350, which she had received from Anil Kumar for the delivery and medicines.
On Monday, this reporter called Dr NK Sood, Ranjana’s husband, to seek an appointment with a woman doctor for a check up and delivery, to which he readily agreed. However, a question on the Yadavs’ case put him on the defensive.
‘‘Had my wife not conducted the delivery, the child would have been born in the street,’’ he argued. Dr Sood was duly reminded that a degree registered only in Bihar (which his wife has) is not valid here but he protested the UT does not have a registration office.
Then Dr Sood did an about-turn. Where he had been defending his wife’s role in the delivery, on being told that she was not authorised to practice he said she only assisted him.
‘‘She wrote the prescriptions but under my guidance,’’ he said. Ranjana Sood also said she had merely taken the couple to her husband. Times News Network made enquiries with experts regarding the validity of the ‘degree’ held by ‘doctor’ Ranjana Sood.
‘‘Both Supreme Court and Central Council of Indian Medicine Act have deemed Vaidya Visharad and Ayurveda Rattan degrees obtained after 1967 invalid. Registration in Bihar is also not recognised,’’ said Sanjay Goel, president of National Integrated Medical Association, Chandigarh.
Vaid Jagjit Singh, a member of the association, said, ‘‘Anyone who practises with or advertises these ‘bogus’ degrees may be imprisoned for three or more years.’’