Woman to get Rs 75K for injury during delivery

SURAT: The consumer court in Navsari has ordered a local gynaecologist to pay Rs 75,000 compensation to a 28-year-old woman who suffered rectovaginal fistula during the normal delivery around four years ago. The Navsari District Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission observed that the woman’s medical condition was a result of the hospital’s negligence and she was discharged without proper medical advice.The woman, Reshma Khariwala (name changed), a resident of Surat city, had lodged a complaint against Dr Jignesh Ghadiyali and his ‘Ma’ Hospital in Navsari town with the consumer court demanding compensation. She had been consulting him for her pregnancy.On December11, 2016, she had labour pain and was rushed to hospital at 4am. While Dr Ghadiyali was not present, the nurse gave her an injection and informed that that it would take a week for the delivery. However, as the pain did not subside, Reshma contacted the doctor who told her to get admitted the same day. The nurse meanwhile told her mother that the delivery will have to be done in 10 minutes. After taking advice from the doctor, the nurse performed normal delivery.Reshma continued to suffer pain but the doctor said it was due to stitches and prescribed her medicines. She was discharged on December 13 though she was in severe pain. The next day, she started having trouble attending nature’s call. The doctor then took three stitches in three days but she got no relief. Reshma finally consulted a doctor in Surat who diagnosed a hole in the rectum due to a deep cut during the delivery procedure.The doctor’s advocate argued that puncture in rectum during normal delivery is a known complication. Moreover, when infection occurs in episiotomy or it opens, there are chances of rectovagial fistula. Going by the records, the court ruled that the cut was deep inside which resulted in puncture in the rectum. Moreover, doctors did not treat it immediately and instead gave her medicine and discharged her. Later, the doctor took stitches and closed the rectum but it was not done in time and the stitches were taken repeatedly.In this case, the nurse made the cut during the delivery in absence of the doctor and records prove that when the patient was brought, the doctor was not present. “The hospital could not prove that the patient did not take medicine. If the patient was feeling good, then she would not have been admitted to another hospital. She was admitted to a hospital in Surat and got operated for rectum vaginal fistula which was caused due to negligence by the doctor at Ma Hospital,” the court observed.