BENGALURU: A couple of employees of Nimhans stole biopsy samples of patients from a dedicated warehouse of the institution and sold them to other institutes and to a man from Kerala. The racket came to light during a surprise visit to the mortuary by a team of doctors recently.
Dr BS Shankaranarayana Rao, registrar of Nimhans, lodged a police complaint stating that paraffin blocks containing the samples are missing.Most of them are of patients with brain tumours, he stated.
According to hospital officials, at least 10,000 samples are stored every year in a dedicated facility in their mortuary, after they are tested and the reports of the results are given to patients.
Sources said Dr Anita Mahadevan, head of department of neuropathology, and Dr Nandeesh BN, associate professor of the department, made a surprise visit to the mortuary on December 23 and noticed that a few samples were missing.
The administration then summoned Annadurai, mortuary assistant and a contract employee, for questioning. He passed the blame on Chandrashekar MR, who was hired by BVG agency and deployed to work at Nimhans hospital. Upon sustained questioning, the duo confessed that they sold the samples to one Raghuram from Kerala and to other institutions.
A police officer said Nimhans is suspecting that stolen samples may have been used by researchers writing thesis, for examining and teaching students.
“Samples are not available outside so easily. The officials have to conduct an audit and give us the exact number of samples stolen. We need to trace the Kerala person to find out more about the racket,” he said.
Dr BS Shankaranarayana Rao, registrar of Nimhans, lodged a police complaint stating that paraffin blocks containing the samples are missing.Most of them are of patients with brain tumours, he stated.
According to hospital officials, at least 10,000 samples are stored every year in a dedicated facility in their mortuary, after they are tested and the reports of the results are given to patients.
Sources said Dr Anita Mahadevan, head of department of neuropathology, and Dr Nandeesh BN, associate professor of the department, made a surprise visit to the mortuary on December 23 and noticed that a few samples were missing.
The administration then summoned Annadurai, mortuary assistant and a contract employee, for questioning. He passed the blame on Chandrashekar MR, who was hired by BVG agency and deployed to work at Nimhans hospital. Upon sustained questioning, the duo confessed that they sold the samples to one Raghuram from Kerala and to other institutions.
A police officer said Nimhans is suspecting that stolen samples may have been used by researchers writing thesis, for examining and teaching students.
“Samples are not available outside so easily. The officials have to conduct an audit and give us the exact number of samples stolen. We need to trace the Kerala person to find out more about the racket,” he said.