Misdiagnosis leads to woman’s death, hospital told to pay 1L

CHENNAI: Dismissing an appeal by a private hospital in Purasawalkam, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) has asked it to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a resident of Egmore for medical negligence.
The state commission’s direction confirmed a January 18, 2010 order of the district forum which said Rs 2,000 should be paid towards costs along with the compensation of Rs 1 lakh for causing mental agony.
Elumalai, a resident of Dr Santhosh Nagar in Egmore, lodged a complaint saying that his wife Parameshvari, who was pregnant for the second time, died because of improper diagnosis and treatment at Kola Saraswathy Maternity Hospital.
According Elumalai’s complaint, when Paramesvari began running a high temperature on September 21, 1999, she was admitted to the hospital as she was in an advanced stage of her pregnancy.
After an examination, she was advised to undergo blood and urine tests. Doctors treated her for malaria but her health did not improve. Three days later, she was referred to the Government Hospital for Women and Children, the complaint said.
Soon after the admission at noon, doctors began investigating for jaundice. It was found that her blood high levels of bilirubin, which is the maximum level possible. Before she could be treated for jaundice, Parameshvari died at 3am the next day.
Passing orders, a bench of Justice M Thanikachalam, president, J Jayaram, judicial member, and Vasugi Ramanan, member, said Kola Saraswathy Maternity Hospital had erred as it did not conduct any other test, such as a liver function test, and treated the patient for malaria alone.
“When there was no improvement after two or three days, they should have gone for further testing, suspecting jaundice also, which was detected by the Government Hospital for Women and Children, at the first instance,” the bench observed.
The high bilirubin levels made it clear that the patient would have shown external symptoms, not only in her eyes but also in her body acquiring a yellow colour.
“If the first hospital or doctors had bestowed some care, which is expected and required from any prudent doctor, they should have identified jaundice at least on September 24, 1999, which they failed and that should be construed as negligence and deficiency in service,” the bench said, directing the hospital to pay compensation.