How 7 deaths exposed Damoh’s ‘highly qualified surgeon’

In the two months that he was based at the Mission Hospital at Damoh in Madhya Pradesh, the ‘highly qualified surgeon’ examined nearly 70 patients and performed surgeries on 13 of them.The surgeon claimed to have trained initially in India and then in the UK and US under multiple specialists. He said he’d performed over 15,000 complex procedures in his three decades as a surgeon.However, seven of the 13 patients he operated on allegedly died soon after the procedures. Suddenly, there were doubts about the highly paid Dr Narendra John Camm, who had conducted these surgeries.District president of the Child Welfare Committee Deepak Tiwari told TOI that several families alerted the administration after they noticed discrepancies in the doctor’s qualifications and credentials.Some patients, who were sceptical of the doctor's expertise, took their relatives to a different hospital in Jabalpur, where it was discovered that the ‘surgeon’ was impersonating a foreign-trained cardiologist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV6HWaMW2q4In response to concerns raised by the District Collector, an investigation team led by three senior doctors was formed. The team confirmed that several patients had died following surgeries performed by Dr Camm. It also turned out his name was Dr Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav.But when the investigation team attempted to locate the surgeon, they discovered he had resigned from his post. The hotel room he stayed in during his two-month stint at the hospital was empty.The highly reputed Dr CammOn a website, Yadav is said to have studied at the prestigious St. George's Hospital London and then said he’d received extensive training in Interventional Cardiology under ‘Dr. A John Camm’. Dr A John Camm, a prominent cardiologist who lives in the UK, told a newspaper that he had never interacted with Yadav ever.Yadav claimed to have been awarded membership by the prestigious British Cardiac Society and said he joined the St. George's Hospital in London as an interventional cardiologist in 2002. He also claimed to have been an editor with the British Medical Journal.According to the website, Yadav claimed to have joined Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi in 2003 and then worked in Chicago where he trained with other specialists for years.“He came to India in January 2006 and joined Wockhardt Heart Centre, Hyderabad, as Consultant Interventional Cardiologist. He performed a few outstanding cases which were published in a couple of national dailies,” his profile claimed.In the last decade alone, he claimed to have performed more than 15,000 complex angioplasties. medium120159184The red flags that were missedIn the complaint filed with the police on April 6 by Dr MK Jain, Chief Medical and Health Officer of Damoh, said that Yadav had performed angiographies and angioplasties without the necessary registration with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council.Dr Jain’s investigation also uncovered serious discrepancies in the surgeon’s credentials, with documents from Mission Hospital failing to provide essential registration details.“The registration was neither displayed on his documents nor available on the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council’s official portal, despite the hospital presenting it as his issuing body,” the FIR noted.The hospital manager was also under scrutiny for presenting degree certificates and registration documents that lacked official verification numbers from any recognized university or council. There had also been multiple cases filed against Yadav in different states over the years, but they somehow were missed.Mission Hospital authorities claimed they hired ‘Dr Camm’ through a Bhopal-based agency at a salary of Rs 8 lakh per month, but did not verify his credentials with the Madhya Pradesh Medical Council.Police registered a case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections related to fraud, forgery, misappropriation, and criminal conspiracy. Investigators say the accused not only fabricated documents but also posed as a UK-educated doctor, exploiting the name of the real Prof. John Camm.However, there’s no case of medical negligence filed against him so far for the deaths of patients.Police discovered that Yadav had been staying at Damoh's Utsav Villas hotel Room 105 since joining Mission Hospital on a salary of Rs 8 lakh a month, and that the bill was being paid by the hospital management. Hotel staff said that he never allowed anyone to enter his room while he lived there.Yadav was finally arrested in Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh on April 7. Police said he was tracked on the basis of multiple orders of chicken from a meat seller in the city and wasn't surprised to find police personnel at his doorstep.The UK-based cardiologist Dr A John Camm told The Indian Express that impersonation was an issue that came up nearly five years ago. But just a couple of years ago, the Twitter handle of Dr N John Camm had sparked a controversy that put the doctor in the spotlight.The online controversies of Dr N John CammWhile Parliamentary records pointed out that one Dr Narendra Yadav was punished by the Medical Council of India in 2014 for professional impropriety, little is known about his past. There was also a case filed in Telangana in 2019 related to the kidnapping of a UK-based doctor.In 2023, the handle made national headlines after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s office retweeted a tweet by him on riots in Paris.“India must send @myogiadityanath to France to control riot situation there and My God, he will do it within 24 hours,” the N John Camm handle wrote in the tweet.In March 2023, a cardiologist Dr Rohin Francis had pointed out multiple issues with the claims made by the Camm’s handle on various subjects. Among them was the fact that he didn’t seem to have worked at some of the hospitals he claimed to have worked at and a ‘hospital’ was actually a photo of a residential complex. medium nocaption120158165 120158181Fact-checker Mohammed Zubair from AltNews had tweeted in 2023 that he got a legal notice from the handle claiming that it was in no way linked to Yadav. Prof N John Camm ji tweeted that he sent a legal Notice. He wants € 10,00,000 as compensation. Claims he is not same as Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav. A little background &#55357;&#56391;&#55357;&#56391; pic.twitter.com/fHRkTLx0ul

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) July 3, 2023 Following the controversy, Zubair said that the doctor had threatened to send legal notices seeking damages to the tune of Rs 5 crore from various news platforms. Fake Doctor and Prof N John Camm ji aka Narendra Vikramaditya Yadav arrested from UP. Doctor saab had prepared to send a legal notice to to Dainik Bhaskar, Mohammed Zubair, NDTV, The Hindu, Vartha Bharti, HT, Google etc and wanted a compensation of Rs. 5 cr for defaming him. He… pic.twitter.com/2JcN2BUnmV

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) April 7, 2025 The person running the Twitter handle also gave multiple interviews to news outlets claiming that it was run by Dr N John Camm. In one interview, the person claimed that Dr Yadav had retired from public life and had sold him all the businesses he ran due to legal woes. At some point, his handle was suspended for violating community guidelines.A long list of claims to verifyYadav has claimed to the police that he wanted to open a chain of hospitals in India. He said he had taken up the name John Camm while in the UK to avoid racial bias and kept it to get more respect in India.Yadav allegedly claimed to have obtained his MBBS from the University of North Bengal in 1996. However, like every other claim made by him so far, the police are trying to verify it."He has accepted that most of his certificates are fake. We are trying to verify his degree from the state he claims," said Damoh SP Shrut Kirti Somavanshi. #Damoh #Doctor

फर्जी डॉक्टर नरेंद्र यादव उर्फ डॉ जॉन कैम को कोर्ट ने पांच दिन की पुलिस रिमांड पर भेजा।

यादव पर आरोप है कि उन्होंने फर्जी डिग्री और यूके के मशहूर डॉक्टर (John Camm) की आइडेंटिटी चोरी कर दमोह के मिशन हॉस्पिटल में कार्डियोलॉजिस्ट कि नौकरी ली और दर्जनों लोगों का… pic.twitter.com/babKhejzru

— काश/if Kakvi (@KashifKakvi) April 8, 2025 The police found the doctor’s registration with the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council to be fake. Authorities are now investigating whether Yadav was the same doctor arrested in Telangana in a cheating case.Verifying the authenticity of his international certificates may prove difficult for the police. The police also have little explanation on how Yadav managed to conduct surgeries if his medical training itself is suspect."If he's not an MBBS, it’s clear that he’s been learning through other means," said a police officer.Yadav was produced before a court in Damoh on April 8 and is to remain in the custody of the police for five days. Given he claimed to have worked with various hospitals in the past, the police are trying to contact each institute and check if there have been other patient fatalities after receiving treatment from him.