Panel orders Pathankot doctors to pay Rs 50 lakh for negligence

Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 21

The Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered Pathankot based Dr Pankaj Sharma to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for medical negligence to parents of twins who lost their vision.

Twins lose vision

• Rahul Mahajan, father of the twins, said his wife gave birth to premature twins on January 25, 2017. The twins had retinopathy of prematurity, which can be treated till stage-III
• Their eye condition was in stage-V when they were taken for cure. The babies allegedly did not get the required attention during the period and their eyesight was affected permanently

Dr Trupti, wife of Dr Pankaj Sharma, who works in another hospital, has been asked to pay Rs 15 lakh and Dr Surjit Singh of the Dr Surjit Singh Eye Hospital has been ordered to pay Rs 5 lakh for alleged carelessness in handling the case by Justice Paramjeet Singh Dhaliwal, president of the commission and Rajinder Kumar Goyal and Kiran Sibal, both members. All three have been asked to pay the amount with seven per cent interest from the date of the complaint (December 28, 2018) to date. They have been asked to pay the litigation costs separately.

Rahul Mahajan, father of the twins, complained that his wife gave birth to premature twins on January 25, 2017. They were just 32 weeks old when she delivered the babies. The twins had retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which develops in case of premature babies. Till stage-III, the ROP can be treated, and afterwards, there is total detachment leading to blindness. The entire process happens within first four weeks of the birth of the baby. The eyes of babies were in stage-V when they went for cure. The children of the complainant allegedly did not get the required attention during the period and the eyesight was affected permanently.

The babies were also taken later to pioneering institutes, including PGIMER, Chandigarh, AIIMS, Delhi and Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, but their eyesight could not be restored.