Follow Us
Pushpa Girimaji
Three months ago, my sister delivered a cute baby girl. Soon after, the doctor at the nursing home said the child had mild jaundice and would be kept in the incubator for a few days. However, on the third day, when the child was brought to my sister for feeding, she noticed severe burn marks on the child and complained to the doctor, who brushed it off saying that the child is just flushed from the heat of the incubator. Not satisfied with the answer and the fact that the baby was crying incessantly, we took the child to a paediatric burns specialist.
It took the child two and a half months to recover from the severe burn injuries and during this time we could neither celebrate her birth nor have a naming ceremony. There were times when we were not even sure whether the child would survive. Now my sister wants to hold the nursing home accountable for the suffering caused to the child as well as to all of us. So she needs advise on how to go about filing the case.
The hospital is guilty of negligence on several counts here and you must hold all those responsible, fully accountable. First of all, an incubator has to be maintained in top condition and the child kept inside it has to be constantly monitored. On both these counts, the hospital obviously failed, or else this would not have happened. Also, how old was the incubator and what was its condition? Was the child kept at the right temperature? Who checked it? When was it last serviced? And how is it that the hospital did not notice the burn injury till the mother pointed it out? These are all questions that the hospital needs to answer.
Second of all, even after the injury was pointed out, instead of taking immediate remedial measure, the nursing home argued that the child was only ‘flushed’ from the warmth of the incubator. So if the parents had not taken the child to another hospital, if the child had not got immediate medical attention, it would probably not have survived at all. The hospital must pay for its gross negligence.
This is one of those cases of ‘facts speak for themselves’ (‘Res Ipsa loquitur’). So you do not have to labour much over the case. Just keep the date of admission and discharge at the nursing home, the cash receipts for bills paid, discharge summary, etc. Remember, your sister has the right to all the records concerning the treatment of her child. You also need all the records and observations of the doctors at the second hospital and the treatment followed by them.
Can you recall a similar case decided by the consumer court?
I recall a particularly distressing case decided by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in 2007. (Saran Hospital and Nursing Home and others VS Palwinder Singh) Here, new born twins were kept in an incubator to treat neonatal jaundice, where they suffered severe burn injuries. Seeing their condition, the hospital quickly referred them to a larger hospital, where they were declared to be suffering from extensive burns and were given blood transfusion. The burn injuries led to septicaemia and gangrene , requiring amputation of some fingers.
The consumer courts held the hospital guilty of negligence and directed it to bear the entire cost of the treatment of the twins. In addition, the State Commission awarded Rs 7 lakhs to each of the twins, to be kept in a fixed deposit till they reached the age of 19, besides Rs 2 lakhs as compensation and Rs 10,000 as costs to the parents. However, the apex consumer court reduced the compensation amounts from Rs 7 lakhs to 5 lakhs and Rs 2 lakhs to 1 lakh.
This, I think was totally unwarranted, considering the suffering the children will undergo without all their fingers and again during possible micro reconstruction of the thumb and fingers when they are old enough for such a surgery. In fact, the damages should have been far higher. .
However, I must say that consumer courts are not as miserly today as they were some ten years ago and hopefully, they will do justice in your sister’s case.