Man dies after Pharmacist administers painkiller injection; case booked

Chennai: A 52 years old pharmacist has been arrested following the death of a man who was administered a painkiller injection by him. According to recent media reports, the man died within minutes after being injected by the medical store owner who holds a B.Pharm degree.

The case relates to a man of 40 years a tailor by profession. He was suffering from severe shoulder and neck pain for almost half a month. He underwent treatment for the ailment at a private hospital. On July 22 (Monday), as the pain worsened he visited Sri Sakthi Medicals on Surapattu-Ambattur Road that a medical store that reportedly doubles up as a small nursing home with a bed for administering intravenous fluids such as saline.

On reaching the medical store, the man showed the hospital’s medical prescription to the pharmacist, who gave him medicine. After one hour, the pharmacist administered the man with a painkiller injection. However, the man immediately fainted after being injected. He was hurried to a nearby hospital in Puzhal where he was declared dead by the doctors.

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A case under IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) has been registered by the Ambattur police based on a complaint lodged by the deceased's wife.

During police interrogation, it came to light that the pharmacist had reportedly administered him three such injections in the last one week. The pharmacist claimed that he did so as the deceased insisted that he be administered an injection to get relief from shoulder and neck pain.

As per the laws in India that govern medical practices, only registered medical practitioners registered with the state medical councils are authorised to examine patients for an illness, arrive at a diagnosis and prescribe/administer medicines. Pharmacists are only licenced to dispense medicines as prescribed by a licenced medical practitioner.

The deceased's body was sent to the Government Stanley Medical Hospital and postmortem had been performed at Kilpauk GH. It is suspected that the man died of cardiac arrest, reports The New Indian Express.

With the death, the people in the area informed that the pharmacist, a BPharma has never administered an injection to newcomers and only gave to regular patients who visited his store. The pharmacist had reportedly been running a medical store near MGR Statue for about 15 years before shifting to the current location at the end of 2018.

“I suffered from a severe cold for the past two days and he gave me medicine and administered an injection on Monday evening. I am perfectly alright now, ” Mukundan, who runs a briyani shop, told TOI.