Journal of Forensic Investigation

Research Article

Fallacies of Wound Certificate Documentation in Medico-Legal Cases by Treating Indian Doctors: A Retrospective Study in Rural Medical College

Vijay Kumar AG, Nithin Gowda K*, Shivaramu MG and Kumar U

Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Adichunchanagiri University, India
*Address for Correspondence: Nithin Gowda K, Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, Adichunchanagiri University, B G Nagara, Nagamangala Taluk, Mandya, Karnataka State, India; E-mail: vijay.fmt@rediffmail.com
Submission: 14 February, 2020 Accepted: 16 March, 2020 Published: 18 March, 2020
Copyright: © 2020 Vijay Kumar AG, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

An injury is any harm, illegally caused to any person in body, mind, reputation or property (sec 44 IPC). A wound is a break of the natural continuity of any of the tissues of the living body1. Objective: To know the types of errors are being committed by the physicians while filling up the wound certificates. On detailed analysis of the wound certificates issued by treating doctor in our hospital in the year 2019 yielded the following results. Out of a total of 100 certificates analyzed, only 44(44%) of the 100 certificates were found to be completely filled and correct. A Total of 32(32%) certificates contained major errors and 20(20%) contained minor errors. 4(4%) certificates contained both major and minor errors. Errors, be it manual or instrumental are not acceptable. Especially in the profession as great as Medicine. There is no scope for errors here. Even when error is such a fatal mistake in medical profession, globally 1,42,000 people died in 2013 from adverse medical treatment effects6.