To avoid jail, health official pays compensation

Faced with the prospect of imprisonment for violating orders in a consumer case, an officer of Chandigarh's health department Monday paid Rs.4.38 lakh in compensation to a woman who lost her foetus and suffered kidney damage.

The loss of the foetus and the kidney damage occurred because of the negligence of government doctors in a leading hospital here.

Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH) medical superintendent Rajiv Wadhera appeared in person before the Chandigarh State Consumer Commission and tendered an amount of Rs.4,38,515 to the victim, identified as Suman.

The commission had summoned Wadhera, who was acting Director-Health Services, to explain why the compensation was not paid to the victim despite its order of March 2012.

The commission had given time to the health department till Sep 27 to pay the amount.

Suman, who was pregnant, suffered at the hands of three negligent doctors who got blood of a wrong group administered to her in the GMSH in December 2009.

The blood group was meant for another pregnant woman.

Suman, as a consequence, lost her foetus and suffered damage to her kidneys.

The commission had ordered that the hospital and the three doctors, Kirti Sood, Navdeep Kaur and Manpreet Kaur, pay the patient compensation, Suman's counsel Pankaj Chandgothia said.

Wadhera, in an affidavit to the commission, had earlier stated that the full compensation was not paid to Suman as the three doctors had left government service and that the health department had no means to recover costs from them.

The GMSH offered to pay only one-fourth of the compensation amount, saying that it was only one of the four parties.