The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

GMCH employees stage dharna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 16
Employees of Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, today staged a demonstration in protest against the suspension of two staff nurses of the hospital.

A press note issued by the Government Medical College and Hospital Employees said inquiries revealed that the fault in performing a wrong operation was of a Senior Resident of the ENT Department who prepared OT list.

He mentioned the CR number against the name of both the patients. And the mistake crept at this level.

The job of the paramedical staff was to help the doctors in the hospital and operation theatre. The Chandigarh Administration has tried to shift the responsibility.

The note said earlier office-bearers of the union called on the Joint Director (Administration) to solve the matter. The demonstration was staged during the lunch hours keeping in view the patient care.

Scientist hammers human cloning
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 16
For the past four years, French scientist Dr Bohdan Wasylyk has been heading a research group on identification and study of genes involved in cancer progression. Under the project, which includes doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as well, the visiting scientist has been studying the pathogens involved in cancer. A publisher of many reports on the therapeutic applications of his fundamental research on human genetic expression and that of the transgenic animals, Dr Bohdan is also a recipient of the reputed League Against Cancer Prize for his amazing research work on the subject.

In the city on an invitation from the French Embassy and the Alliance Francaise under the ongoing French Science Today series, Dr Bohdan today talked with great vehemence about the issue of cloning, human cloning in particular. As a scientist, he came across as a man of great morality, as he told Chandigarh Tribune, “We, as humans, should not be closed to knowledge, but at the same time, we need to remind ourselves all the time that knowledge can be dangerous, at times. Just having knowledge does not mean that we should do something which can prove suicidal for the world. Scientists are servants of society and as such, science is not an end in itself.”

As a scientist himself, Dr Bohdan has also been working on industrial projects detecting P53 antibodies as markers of cancer. The work on cancer is going on in collaboration with Indian scientists and is being financed by an Indo-French organisation. He said, “We are working on pathways that regulate our growth and response reactions. We have conducted a study on stress induced by ultraviolet rays, apart from working on how P53 protects against sunrays.”

Today, however, on the occasion of the third lecture under the series at Alliance Francaise, the scientist talked about how immoral and illegal human cloning was. Ever since the issue of procreative freedom rose to prominence with the cloning of a sheep’s from the cell of an adult sheep’s mammary gland in 1997, the world of science had been grappling with cloning and its consequences. The birth of this sheep called Dolly in Scotland was a veritable revolution. No wonder it spurred a debate on the subject and brought out major differences of opinion between the United States of America and Europe.

Talking about the need to ban human cloning, Dr Bohdan said, “This is ethically unacceptable. Most countries have banned human, cloning. In fact, Germany and France are pressing upon the USA to pass a resolution banning human cloning.” The lecture on cloning was today preceded by a film titled “The Age of Clones,” which had details on how Dolly was created. There was also a film on the legal battle on cloning and the contrary reactions on human cloning by the USA and Europe.

Following the film, Dr Bohdan covered various aspects of cloning right from the legal view on cloning. “We, in France, use only model organisms like mouse and flies for cloning purpose. We never work on human embryos,” he said.

Doc suspended for negligence
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 16
The authorities at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, today suspended a doctor and two nurses for their alleged involvement in a case of negligence in which a woman, Saroj, admitted to the hospital for surgery of nose, had been operated on her throat.

A chargesheet was also served on two other doctors, said well placed sources. The doctors are working in the department of anaesthesia and ENT, respectively.

Saroj, a 40 year-old-women from Solan, was admitted to the GMCH and was operated on July 19. The error occured as there were reportedly two women with the same name admitted to the hospital.

SPORTS

TT tournament from Oct 19
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, October 16
Prof RS Mehta memorial Open Table Tennis tournament will be held from October 19 to 21 at the Sector 23 TT hall, in which paddlers from Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh will take part. According to a press note, the events to be held included- men singles, women singles, junior boys and girls singles, cadet boys and girls. Entries close with Mr Rajiv Kaushal, TT coach, and Mr Narinder Saini at Sector 23 TT Hall, Chandigarh on October 18.

Boxing probables

The Chandigarh Amateur Boxing Association, has selected 39 probables including 15 women for the coaching camp in preparation of the 31st National Games to be held in November. According to Mr C.K. Jerath, secretary of CABA, the camp will be held from October 18 to November 10.

Those selected are: men— Ramesh Singh, Ashwani, Dharam Singh, Sohan Singh, Pradeep, Anand, Sandeep, P.Arora, Sumit, Parveen, Ajay Singh, Vivek, Sanjeev, Raman, Harish, Ajit Pal, Varinder, Kuldeep and Harbinder. Women: Komal, Sangeeta, Vipin, Neelam, Kulwinder, Sangeeta Toshi, Anamika, Aman, Harsh, Monika, Shanta, Sonia, Mandeep, Sachdeep and Jyoti.