A hoax message sent via WhatsApp created a flutter in the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital as the message contained an image of an X-ray copy showing a scissor inside a patient’s leg.

According to Dr. S. Vettrivel Chezhiyan, Professor of Orthopaedics Department at CMCH, an operation was conducted on the hip part of M. Karuppasamy (70) from Ramanathapuram, as he met with an accident.

“The patient was severely injured and needed an immediate surgery to walk properly. We conducted the operation on the September 15,” said the surgeon.

He added that since there was a power failure during the operation, they were forced to take an X-ray as the monitor was not working.

“The surgeons have placed the scissors on top of the covering towel and the clips holding the towel were near his thighs. Unfortunately, the pair of scissors and the towel clip came in the X-ray as they were metals,” he said.
Dr. Vettrivel said that any metal that came between the machine and the patient would appear as if it was inside the patient and that was what happened in the case of Karuppasamy.

However, to the shock of the CMCH doctors, someone had taken a photograph of the X-ray copy and spread it on WhatsApp. This created a flutter in and around CMCH.

“We received numerous calls after the incident and we had to explain everything about the incident,” said Dr. Vettrivelan.

He added that he had personally filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime officials and added that people should think logically and check if it was a hoax before spreading anything.

“It is impossible to leave a metal of the size of a scissors inside a patient’s body. Such people who spread such news should be punished,” he said.