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.