Casino vessel Leela not fit to move out of Mandovi: DGS
Preetu Nair , TNN
PANAJI: The Leela approached the high court opposing the state government's move to shift all casino vessels to Aguada Bay stating that it would
affect its commercial operations. It also said it had permission from the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) to operate the vessel within the sheltered waters of the Mandovi. But now it appears there is more than meets the eye.
Replying to Leela's claim, DGS has filed an affidavit in the high court pointing out that the vessel has major technical deficiencies and cannot operate as a passenger vessel beyond sheltered waters.
"The owners of MV The Leela put up the vessel for certification as a class VII passenger vessel, the lowest class permissible. However, the vessel couldn't meet the requirements for even this class, as it didn't comply with many of the rule requirements," states the affidavit. It adds, "The Leela, in its present condition, can't operate as a passenger vessel beyond sheltered waters."
When contacted, all that a Leela Venture Ltd official said was, "We have taken permission from DGS to operate on river Mandovi as a class VII passenger vessel and we have been granted the same. This is also displayed on the vessel."
The situation is akin to a 15-year-old luxury bus with major technical deficiencies not meeting the required RTO fitness standards yet being granted permission on the bus operator's assurance that it will ply only within city limits.
The Leela was accorded the certification after exemptions were granted with regard to watertight doors, deadlights for scuttles/windows for emergency use, double bottom tanks, detachable sills to facilitate safe passenger entry and exit, and exemption for diesel engine driven emergency fire pump with hand cranking. All this was explained in a letter from DGS to Leela on June 18, 2008.
The affidavit also states, "The vessel has major technical deficiencies with reference to the applicable rule requirements. Due to this, its operation as a passenger vessel is restricted to within sheltered waters. In case they want to operate the vessel beyond sheltered waters of any port or river, they have to rectify the deficiencies and comply fully with the relevant rules applicable for a passenger vessel for the intended area and season of operation."
Refuting the casino vessel's claim that it had DGS's permission to operate within the sheltered waters of the Mandovi, DGS said that the owners had themselves requested exemption from various rule requirements for a class VII certification, stating that operation would be restricted to the sheltered waters of river Mandovi, within inland water limits, that it will operate in inshore areas where traffic restrictions are not applicable, that the vessel will not ferry passengers and that the vessel will not sail or cruise, but remain moored in the river, except for bunkering purposes at which time there will be no passengers on board. This, Leela had communicated to the DGS on June 9, 2008.
The status and exemptions were granted taking into consideration the area and nature of operation of the vessel under provisions of MS (Construction and Survey of Passenger Ships) Rules 1981.
Passenger ships in India are classified in seven classes, class I being the highest and permitted to undertake "international voyages" and class VII the lowest. Class VII passenger vessels can be engaged only on voyages during the "fair season" between ports in India and the aren't allowed further than 5 miles from land.
8 Apr 2009, The Times of India, Goa edition
Showing posts with label Goa Medical College;brain dead;ethics;medico legal case; Journalist;Journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goa Medical College;brain dead;ethics;medico legal case; Journalist;Journalism. Show all posts
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Friday, November 21, 2008
Deaths in two-wheeler crashes on the rise in Goa
Deaths in two-wheeler crashes on the rise in Goa
Preetu Nair | TNN
Panaji: Helmetless riding is taking an enormous toll on the lives of youth in the state. On Sunday, about 10 persons with head injuries were admitted to the neurosurgery ward of the Goa medical college and hospital, Bambolim, with head injuries from head-on collisions. Two of those admitted continue to be critical.
Of the 322 persons who died in road accidents in 2007, over 52% were two-wheeler drivers with head injuries and majority of them were not wearing a helmet at the time of the mishap.
“Statistics tell the truth. Two-wheelers are unsafe and accident prone, yet riders aren’t willing to wear helmets. They wear it only when the police insist. Things won’t change until people realize that it is their responsibility to wear helmets when on road to reduce the risk of their own death,” said SP (traffic) Arvind Gawas.
Data collected by the state’s traffic department on two wheeler riders killed reveals that in 2007, of the 186 persons who died from head injuries, 39 were pillion riders. Many of the accidents had occurred on national and state highways, where wearing a helmet is compulsory. On inner roads, which accounted for about 100 head injury related deaths, the number of two-wheelers involved was 817.
“The rider as well as the pillion are vulnerable when involved in a high velocity headon collision. Wearing a helmet provides protection against the impact and impulse head injuries,” said Dr Ponraj Sundaram, neurosurgeon, GMC. While an impact head injury may lead to a fracture of the skull and direct injury to the brain, an impulse head injury affects the whole brain.
“Any brain tissue damage lasts for life. If the person is young, the area around the tissue may compensate to a certain extent and the person may pull along, but many suffer from hidden handicaps,” said Sundaram. “We found that the working male population within the age group of 20 to 40 is most vulnerable to head injuries. We also found an increase in the number of high velocity head injuries among teenagers riding two-wheelers,” he said.
“If one avoids driving under the influence of alcohol, drives carefully and wears a helmet, the risk of accidents is drastically reduced,” said senior resident at GMC’s neurosurgery department Dr Jorson D’Costa.
Year 2006 saw 37% of the two-wheeler accident victims dying of head injuries. Of the 303 persons killed in 2006, about 102 were helmetless, and 18 were riding pillion. In the year 2005, 270 persons were killed in road accidents and 117 riders and pillion riders, were killed from head injuries. The year 2004 saw 306 deaths — 90 riders and 30 pillion riders — due to head injuries.
November 21, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
Preetu Nair | TNN
Panaji: Helmetless riding is taking an enormous toll on the lives of youth in the state. On Sunday, about 10 persons with head injuries were admitted to the neurosurgery ward of the Goa medical college and hospital, Bambolim, with head injuries from head-on collisions. Two of those admitted continue to be critical.
Of the 322 persons who died in road accidents in 2007, over 52% were two-wheeler drivers with head injuries and majority of them were not wearing a helmet at the time of the mishap.
“Statistics tell the truth. Two-wheelers are unsafe and accident prone, yet riders aren’t willing to wear helmets. They wear it only when the police insist. Things won’t change until people realize that it is their responsibility to wear helmets when on road to reduce the risk of their own death,” said SP (traffic) Arvind Gawas.
Data collected by the state’s traffic department on two wheeler riders killed reveals that in 2007, of the 186 persons who died from head injuries, 39 were pillion riders. Many of the accidents had occurred on national and state highways, where wearing a helmet is compulsory. On inner roads, which accounted for about 100 head injury related deaths, the number of two-wheelers involved was 817.
“The rider as well as the pillion are vulnerable when involved in a high velocity headon collision. Wearing a helmet provides protection against the impact and impulse head injuries,” said Dr Ponraj Sundaram, neurosurgeon, GMC. While an impact head injury may lead to a fracture of the skull and direct injury to the brain, an impulse head injury affects the whole brain.
“Any brain tissue damage lasts for life. If the person is young, the area around the tissue may compensate to a certain extent and the person may pull along, but many suffer from hidden handicaps,” said Sundaram. “We found that the working male population within the age group of 20 to 40 is most vulnerable to head injuries. We also found an increase in the number of high velocity head injuries among teenagers riding two-wheelers,” he said.
“If one avoids driving under the influence of alcohol, drives carefully and wears a helmet, the risk of accidents is drastically reduced,” said senior resident at GMC’s neurosurgery department Dr Jorson D’Costa.
Year 2006 saw 37% of the two-wheeler accident victims dying of head injuries. Of the 303 persons killed in 2006, about 102 were helmetless, and 18 were riding pillion. In the year 2005, 270 persons were killed in road accidents and 117 riders and pillion riders, were killed from head injuries. The year 2004 saw 306 deaths — 90 riders and 30 pillion riders — due to head injuries.
November 21, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
Monday, November 10, 2008
Goa Medical College plans policy review, to take brain dead off ventilators
GMC plans policy review, to take brain dead off ventilators
Preetu Nair | TNN
Panaji: Goa Medical College and Hospital may soon take patients who have been declared brain dead but are on ventilator off the apparatus so that the machine can be given to a patient with higher chances of survival. Doctors feel this could make the difference between life and death for critically ill patients.
Doctors at GMC admit that a review of the policy on ‘brain stem dead patients’ is in the offing. “At present, we keep such patients on ventilator till death is caused due to cardio respiratory failure. When a brain dead person is on ventilator, another patient who can definitely improve if put on ventilator in time is denied the facility,” said GMC dean Dr V N Jindal.
At any given point of time, there are at least seven critically ill patients admitted at GMC’s ICU, of which about a third go through the process of brain death. “Every week, we get at least one patient who stops responding during the course of treatment and becomes brain dead. But treatment is continued till the patient has a cardiac arrest so as to certify him or her dead,” said Dr Ponraj Sundaram, neurosurgeon at GMC.
“It is often difficult to convince the layman that a brain dead person is dead as people believe that a person is not dead as long as the heart keeps beating. A brain dead person on ventilator can register heartbeats for months together,” said Dr Jindal.
Even as doctors try to satisfy relatives of patients who are brain dead, they face the problem of denying admission into the ICU patients who are alive. Doctors say there are two accepted modes of death – cardio respiratory failure and brain stem death — in India as stated in the organ transplant act. A person is brain stem dead when there is an irreversible cessation of the functions of the brain.
Every year, GMC receives about 200 patients with head injuries who pass away from brain death, besides another 200 who die from massive strokes.
Explaining who can declare a patient to be brain dead, Dr Gopinath Shenoy, a medico-legal expert from Mumbai, said that according to the Organ Transplant Act, whenever an individual’s organs have to be harvested (for transplantation), a committee needs to examine the patient and certify the patient brain dead. “If the organs needn’t be harvested, then a single doctor can diagnose the patient as brain dead and a death certificate can be issued. This is acceptable in law,” he said.
There is, however, a moral and ethical dilemma involved. “Due to this we have decided to have a meeting with all medical consultants to review the situation and arrive at a policy decision,” added Dr Jindal.
Dr Shenoy added, “A brain stem dead patient is dead and even the law states this. By putting a brain stem dead person on ventilator, the doctor is actually doing a disservice to the patient and relatives as the hospital bill keeps mounting.”
A ventilator in a private hospital costs Rs 10,000 to 15,000 per day, while it’s free at GMC.
This decision comes in the wake of discussions on brain deaths and ventilators during the silver jubilee neurosurgery celebrations of GMC on Sunday.
November 10,2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
Preetu Nair | TNN
Panaji: Goa Medical College and Hospital may soon take patients who have been declared brain dead but are on ventilator off the apparatus so that the machine can be given to a patient with higher chances of survival. Doctors feel this could make the difference between life and death for critically ill patients.
Doctors at GMC admit that a review of the policy on ‘brain stem dead patients’ is in the offing. “At present, we keep such patients on ventilator till death is caused due to cardio respiratory failure. When a brain dead person is on ventilator, another patient who can definitely improve if put on ventilator in time is denied the facility,” said GMC dean Dr V N Jindal.
At any given point of time, there are at least seven critically ill patients admitted at GMC’s ICU, of which about a third go through the process of brain death. “Every week, we get at least one patient who stops responding during the course of treatment and becomes brain dead. But treatment is continued till the patient has a cardiac arrest so as to certify him or her dead,” said Dr Ponraj Sundaram, neurosurgeon at GMC.
“It is often difficult to convince the layman that a brain dead person is dead as people believe that a person is not dead as long as the heart keeps beating. A brain dead person on ventilator can register heartbeats for months together,” said Dr Jindal.
Even as doctors try to satisfy relatives of patients who are brain dead, they face the problem of denying admission into the ICU patients who are alive. Doctors say there are two accepted modes of death – cardio respiratory failure and brain stem death — in India as stated in the organ transplant act. A person is brain stem dead when there is an irreversible cessation of the functions of the brain.
Every year, GMC receives about 200 patients with head injuries who pass away from brain death, besides another 200 who die from massive strokes.
Explaining who can declare a patient to be brain dead, Dr Gopinath Shenoy, a medico-legal expert from Mumbai, said that according to the Organ Transplant Act, whenever an individual’s organs have to be harvested (for transplantation), a committee needs to examine the patient and certify the patient brain dead. “If the organs needn’t be harvested, then a single doctor can diagnose the patient as brain dead and a death certificate can be issued. This is acceptable in law,” he said.
There is, however, a moral and ethical dilemma involved. “Due to this we have decided to have a meeting with all medical consultants to review the situation and arrive at a policy decision,” added Dr Jindal.
Dr Shenoy added, “A brain stem dead patient is dead and even the law states this. By putting a brain stem dead person on ventilator, the doctor is actually doing a disservice to the patient and relatives as the hospital bill keeps mounting.”
A ventilator in a private hospital costs Rs 10,000 to 15,000 per day, while it’s free at GMC.
This decision comes in the wake of discussions on brain deaths and ventilators during the silver jubilee neurosurgery celebrations of GMC on Sunday.
November 10,2008, The Times of India, Goa edition
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