Midwife told to compensate for negligence

FARIDKOT: Holding a midwife guilty of negligence, the district consumer disputes redressal forum here has directed her to pay compensation of Rs 25,000 to a woman hospitalized in the former''s clinic for delivery of child.
The midwife, who calls herself doctor, Manjit Sethi has also been ordered to pay medicine expenses of Rs 7,000 incurred by the patient.The forum based on BC Gupta, SK Rajput and AS Azad has also asked the civil surgeon Faridkot to initiate action against the midwife for illegally representing herself as doctor.
In her complaint before the forum, the patient Neelam Rani, a resident of Abohar had alleged that she was admitted in Dr Manjit Sethi''s clinic at Kotkapura town of the district on January 15, 2003 for delivery of child. Dr Sethi had assured that her clinic was fully equipped for safe delivery of child.
Neelam gave birth to a male child on January 16 , 2003. The child was referred to a private hospital where he died after three days. The mother''s condition also became critical and she was referred to civil hospital Kotkapura on January 20 from where she was sent to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (GGSMC) hospital Faridkot. Neelam remained admitted in GGSMC hospital for 20 days. The complainant had alleged negligence and carelessness on the part of the midwife and had demanded Rs 50,000 as compensation.
Though Dr Manjit Sethi had denied the allegation of negligence, the doctors at civil hospital Kotkapura and medical college hospital Faridkot Dr Raminder Narang and Dr Harkiran Kaur deposed in favour of the patient. They stated before the forum that it was a case of inversion of uterus which was caused due to the negligence of Manjit Sethi.