At Least 7 Patients Dead: How Did the Infamous 'Fake Doctor' Get Hired at MP Hospital?

Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav, who allegedly pretended to be a London-trained cardiologist, was arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj on Monday, 7 April, after an FIR was filed against him the day before.Yadav's tenure at Mission Hospital in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, between January and February has allegedly resulted in at least seven patient deaths following heart surgeries.This arrest, however, is just the beginning—it unravels a deeper web of deceit spanning years, and raises critical questions about the hiring practices and verification protocols in hospitals in India.As early as 2023, Yadav faced widespread online criticism from medical professionals for impersonating Dr John Camm, a renowned UK-based cardiologist. He was even directly exposed by Dr Camm himself.So, how was such a well-known fraudster hired by a reputed hospital and allowed to perform surgeries on patients?A Chat With a Quack Who Promises to Cure ‘Mobile-Induced Gayness’Speaking to The Quint, Krishna Patel, a resident of Damoh, said he first suspected something was wrong with the cardiologist treating his grandfather in January."On 30 January, I took my grandfather to Mission Hospital when he complained of chest pains. The nursing staff said he had a major heart attack and that the doctor would see him only after we paid Rs 50,000."After making the payment and getting a consultation with a Dr John Camm, Krishna was informed that his grandfather had multiple blockages in his arteries and that he required an open-heart surgery. He was told to shift his grandfather to another hospital as this one lacked the necessary facilities for this procedure.When Krishna requested the angiography report and videos, he said, the doctor refused to provide them, leading to a heated argument between the two. For Krishna, this was the first red flag.Krishna then took his grandfather to another hospital in Jabalpur where he was told that though his grandfather had some blockage in his arteries, it didn't require an open-heart surgery at all. This, he said, was the second red flag.This is when he began investigating the doctor who initially treated his grandfather at Mission Hospital. After speaking with a few hospital staff in Narsinghpur and Jabalpur, he discovered that the doctor had a questionable past."At Laxmi Narayan Memorial Hospital in Narsinghpur, I found out that this doctor had been fired because he had failed to submit valid documents for employment. This is when I was sure this doctor was not legitimate."Krishna PatelDr Babu KV vs Patanjali: A Doctor’s Long Fight Against False Medical AdvertisingKrishna then reached out to Deepak Tiwari, Chairman of Damoh Child Welfare Committee, alerting him of the situation and the possibility of a fraudulent cardiologist treating patients at Mission Hospital. "When we spoke to families of patients who were treated by him and died, we found out that all of them were told that the patients died due to heart attacks, and they were pressured not to get postmortems done," Deepak Tiwari informed The Quint.Any doctor in India must be registered with the State Medical Council to practice in that particular state, but according to Deepak Tiwari, Yadav (under the name Dr John Camm) was not registration with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council. "We compiled a file with all this information and sent it to the collector and the CMHO (Chief Medical and Health Officer) office around 15 February. However, no action was taken for over a month."Deepak Tiwari, Chairman, Damoh Child Welfare CommitteeThe Quint has reached out to the CMHO office. Their response will be updated as and when they revert.After no action was taken, Deepak Tiwari stated that the complaint was then escalated to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).On Friday, 4 April, NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo spoke out about the case on his social media—and said that an NHRC team will camp out at the hospital between 7 April and 9 April for further investigation.According to Deepak Tiwari, it was only after Kanoongo's social media post that the CMHO announced that the doctor’s degrees were fake, and filed an FIR on 6 April.Speaking to The Quint, Abhishek Tiwari, Chief Superintendent of Police, Damoh, confirmed that an FIR was filed against the accused under sections 318 (cheating), 338 (forgery of important documents), 336 (forgery, specifically creating or altering documents or electronic records with the intent to deceive or cause harm), and 340(2) (using a forged document or electronic record as genuine) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and under the Madhya Pradesh Ayurvedic Council Act.He added, "He is in custody now and will be interrogated. Action will follow based on the evidence. He had been absconding since February, traced with verbal and technical leads. If hospital officials are found involved, action will be taken."A Chat With a Quack Who Promises to Cure ‘Mobile-Induced Gayness’This incident exposes serious flaws in the hospital's hiring and verification processes, raising the critical question: how did an unqualified doctor manage to bypass administrative scrutiny?"As per procedure, the hospital was supposed to verify all paperwork, which should then have been cross-checked by the CMHO, to issue an NOC allowing the doctor to work," explained Deepak Tiwari.As per the Mission Hospital management, Yadav was hired through a Bhopal-based recruiting company registered with the Madhya Pradesh government called IWUS (Integrated Workforce Unique Solution). "He started work in January this year and left in February. He took an echocardiogram machine with him. He did not inform before leaving. We tried contacting him but got no response," Pushpa Khare, In-charge Manager at Mission Hospital, told The Quint.She said, "Verification and vetting are the agency's responsibility. We paid them 50 percent of the doctor’s salary, which is around Rs 4 lakh, for this service, but they committed fraud."When asked about whether Yadav's documents were verified by the agency, an IWUS representative denied the hospital's accusations, saying, "We had sent the resume to the hospital, but they bypassed us and hired him directly." The representative added, "If they had hired him through us, we would have conducted the necessary checks and verified his documents."Khare, however, insisted that he was hired through the agency and that payment was made for the same. The Quint has accessed the copies of both the receipt and the invoice."We’ve also filed a complaint against the recruiting agency for their negligence," she added.When asked about whether the hospital had carried out any checks of their own, she said, "He was asked to submit documents from his previous workplace, a hospital in Narsinghpur. This was done by the previous management. However, he kept putting them off. After I took over in March, I reported to the local police that he had left without informing anyone and had taken the hospital's property without permission.""He had numerous certificates from various hospitals, making it impossible for us to verify them all. That’s why we hired an agency, trusting them to do the due diligence we paid for."Pushpa KhareKhare also denied the seven patient deaths being linked to Yadav. "He treated over 70 patients and performed around 60 angioplasties. I don’t know if he’s a fraud doctor. The deaths are under investigation, and only then will we know if he was responsible," she said.'Beaten, Dragged, and Silenced': Why Are Students in Hyderabad Still Protesting?Yadav’s fraudulent activities extended beyond the operating room and spanned several years. He was repeatedly called out online for impersonating well-known UK-based cardiologist, Dr John Camm, with his X account eventually suspended in 2024 amid mounting criticism.The real Dr Camm himself has publicly warned against Yadav stealing his identity and the risks posed by his deceit.A quick Google search reveals multiple FIRs filed against Yadav across India, with allegations ranging from embezzlement to medical fraud and even one case of kidnapping. Mentions of the real Narendra Yadav can be found up till around 2019.In May of that year, a Dr Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav, then chairman of Braunwald Hospitals, was arrested in Chennai by the Rachakonda police (Telangana) following a cheating case filed by his employees.A detailed investigative report on the 'fraud doctor' by the news outlet Boom in 2023 revealed that archives from the Braunwald Hospitals website showed Dr Yadav's photo matching that of Dr N John Camm.Additionally, Yadav allegedly performed surgery on Rajendra Prasad Shukla, a former Speaker of Chhattisgarh, in 2006—a procedure that tragically led to Shukla’s death, according to his son, as reported by PTI.Despite these warnings, Yadav managed to infiltrate reputable medical institutions and continued to exploit gaps in verification protocols.‘Don’t Want Exemption from Night Duty, Just Want to Be Safe,’ Say Women Doctors

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7 Surgeries Gone Wrong: How an Infamous 'Fake Doctor' Got Hired at MP Hospital

How seven patient deaths in a Damoh hospital exposed years of deception by a notorious 'fake doctor'.

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Topics: Doctor Fake Degree Impersonation