Parents of medical negligence victim get Rs 10-lakh relief

BANGALORE: A consumer court has held a paediatric and general surgeon working with Bangalore Hospital, RV Road, guilty of medical negligence. The surgeon had conducted a laparoscopic surgery on M Girish, 23, though he was not qualified, resulting in the patient’s death due to septicemia in June 2010.
The Fourth Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Bangalore, has directed Dr KR Srimurthy, paediatric and general surgeon, Bangalore Hospital, and New India Assurance Company to pay a compensation of Rs 10.10 lakh to S Murthy and KM Shivamma, Girish’s parents and residents of Pemmegowda Road, with an annual interest of 12% in a month.
A three-member bench of JN Havanur, Ganganarasaiah and Anita Shivakumar K has said that the insurance company had the primary liability as the hospital had taken a policy with it.
Girish’s parents had sought a compensation of Rs 19.84 lakh for the mental agony caused to them by their son’s death.
The doctor was callous and negligent in causing perforation in the large intestine of his son, resulting in his death, the forum held.
Dr Srimurthy is a paediatric and general surgeon and not a laparoscopic surgeon or urologist, it said and added that the opposite parties had failed to prove that Dr Srimurthy was a skilled and competent doctor and there was no negligence on his part.
The forum said that Girish’s parents were not informed of the complications caused by the surgery and were also denied permission to visit their son in ICU. It ruled that Girish’s parents were entitled to Rs 5,000 towards cost of litigation.