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A Kannada TV actress who went to a private hospital in Bengaluru for fat removal surgery died on Monday in a tragic case of body-shaming and the obsessive pursuit of near-impossible standards of beauty.
Chethana Raj, 21, died because of the hospital's negligence, her family alleged. She reportedly went with her friends to Dr Shetty's Cosmetic Clinic in Rajajinagar for a cosmetic surgery, without telling her parents.
Her friend signed the consent form before Chethana was taken in for surgery. Soon after the procedure, her lungs filled up with fluid and she died of a cardiac arrest within hours.
A case was filed against the clinic's doctors following a police complaint by her parents and the hospital has been shut.
"This is a medical negligence case. We are waiting for an unnatural death report and a case has been registered against Dr Shetty's Cosmetic Clinic over suspicion of her death," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru North Division, Vinayak Patil.
"We have registered a case but no arrests have been made because action will be taken only after the medical report is submitted."
Chethana's parents claimed the hospital violated rules by not seeking their consent before the surgery and that the procedure was done in a room that lacked proper facilities.
"They carried out the surgery without any precautions. The doctors should have suggested surgery only if there was a real need for removal of fat," said Chethana's father Varadaraju.
"It was her friend who signed the consent form for the surgery."
Chethana's uncle Rajappa said: "Someone told her to reduce her weight, so she went to Shetty Clinic to do a fat-reduction surgery. The hospital doesn't have an ICU but did the surgery anyway.
"Fluid entered her respiratory tract, and her friend was told my niece had suffered a cardiac arrest."
According to local media reports, the clinic's doctors tried to resuscitate Chethana for 45 minutes but failed.
On realising that she was unresponsive, they reportedly took her to the nearby Kaade Hospital and tried to force the doctors there to treat her.
The Kaade hospital management said its doctors were pressured to violate protocol for a patient who was brought in dead.
Dr Adhishwar Sharma, senior consultant of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurugram, told Hindustan Times that Chethana probably died due to lignocaine toxicity.
"Lignocaine is commonly used as a numbing agent during such procedures. In a case of overdose of lignocaine, the brain goes into deep sleep," he explained.
"There could be cardiac toxicity where the heart was functioning but was unable to pump much blood and the heart rate increased tremendously. This is called ventricular tachycardia.
"When these complications occur, you need overnight ventilation in order to come out of it because the drug is slowly metabolised from the body. If you are in a small clinic and you don't have the right facilities, it is difficult for a patient to survive."
Chethana was a known face in Kannada daily soaps such as Geetha and Doresani.
Her death has left her friends, colleagues and fans in shock.
Her grandmother Narayanamma was devastated by the incident.
She said while weeping: "She borrowed money and pawned our jewellery for the surgery in the hope of becoming a star.
"We tried to reason with her and told her that we would talk to the doctors. But she insisted she and her friends would get it done.
"Now look what happened."
Indo-Asian News Service
"Someone told her to reduce her weight, so she went to Shetty Hospital to do a fat-reduction surgery. The hospital doesn't have an ICU but did the surgery anyway."
- Mr Rajappa on her niece
Chethana Raj (left)
