Chethana Raj death: Bengaluru clinic had no licence for fat-loss surgery, says official

The district health officer of Bengaluru Urban has served a notice to Shetty’s Cosmetic Centre, where 21-year-old Kannada actor Chethana Raj underwent the fat removal surgery. The district health officer said the cosmetic centre had no licence for the procedure (fat loss surgery) they did on the actor. It only had the licence to run as a polyclinic and dispensary. “They need to submit a written explanation of this incident. If they don’t respond, necessary action will be taken,” Bengaluru DHO said to news agency ANI.

Chethana Raj’s family alleged negligence on the part of the hospital as the actor developed breathing difficulties following her fat-removal surgety on May 16. From Shetty’s Cosmetic Centre, the actor was moved to another hospital where she was declared brought dead after 45 minutes.

The actor’s parents were in dark about her fat-loss surgery as Chethana Raj went to Shetty’s Cosmetic Centre with some friends and got admitted at around 8.30am. The parents said they went to the hospital after Chethana was taken to the operation theatre. Initially, they were told that the operation would take two hourse but she was finally discharged at 5pm, but as she developed breathing difficulties, the clinic staff shifted her to another hospital. “If his (cosmetic) hospital had the facilities, like an ICU, she would have survived. The wait at the hospital and then shifted her to another hospital resulted in the death,” said Chathana Raj’s father Varadaraju.