Medical Negligence: Hospital Found Guilty After 17 Years

A couple's quest for justice for their son was finally served after seventeen years as the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission ordered a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram to pay damages to a couple seventeen years after their son was born mentally challenged due to hospital's negligence.

Shibu Thomas and Geeta had blamed the hospital staff for the condition of their firstborn, whose brain was damaged due to lack of oxygen during delivery. Geeta gave birth to her child on December 30, 1989 and although the child did not cry or suckle, the hospital staff did not care to give emergency treatment including supplying oxygen. The baby had come out of the placenta when the doctors waited for Geeta to develop labour pain, it was revealed. The baby was oxygen-deprived even before he came out of the womb.

The victim now aged 17, needs full-time custodial care due to epilepsy and disability. According to the family, the child doesn't know anything about his case and just keeps crying because of his ill health. He constantly falls down as he tries to walk within his house and although the money is of a little use to him, may be the hospital would learn some sort of a lesson and not repeat such grave mistakes.

The couple had approached the state consumer forum but their case was dismissed in 1995. The family then went to NCDR and in 1997 the appeal was accepted. The couple, who had spent a large chunk of their savings on their mentally challenged son, had asked for Rs4.5 lakh. The commission fixed the sum calculating the interest on the claim.