Above: Indraprastha Apollo Hospital/Photo Courtesy: Practo
A case of alleged mistreated of a patient in the out patient’s ward and thereafter of the renowned Indraprastha Apollo Hospital has come up before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
The case is another of the many complaints that have been in the recent past directed against several hospitals who have shown poor response to patient’s needs apart from overcharging the patients.
This case has been lodged by the mother and father of Himanshu Gupta who died during the course of treatment. The victim was a student of class XI and was aged about 17. He was the only son of the family. He had no history of any serious or chronic ailments or disorder of any sort whether prenatal, congenital or acquired during his lifetime.
All the ops are rendering medical services to the patients for valuable consideration. The complaint says that the patient was poorly looked after in ICU and nurses never paid any attention to the discomfort of the patient. Even during an infection the patient was not isolated to prevent further infection.
On Oct 7, 2008 the patient suffered from severe shock and was brought to OP 1 in the morning. OP No. 4 checked the status of the combo device on Oct 8, 2008 and expressed silently that the said implant was never required. OP 4 also pointed out that shock was due to deletion of tablet Cardarone by OP No. 3. The patient was discharged despite being unstable after the shock.
When the complainant asked about the cause of the shock from OP No. 3, he evaded the issue. Till the time of death Ops were not clear as to whether combo device was accepted by the body of the patient and were groping in the dark for experiments from the last time the patient was admitted on Oct 10, 2008 till death on Oct 13, 2008.
The cause of death reported in the death certificate is Dilated Cardiomyopathy (this is a condition in which the heart’s ability to pump blood is lessened because its main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, is enlarged and weakened. In some cases, this prevents the heart from filling with blood as it should. Over time, it can affect the other chambers) with severe Left Ventricular Dysfunction Post Combo Device with Septicemic Shock.
Thus it is a case of res ipsa loquitur (the principle that the mere occurrence of some types of accident is sufficient to imply negligence) as Ops did not take appropriate precautions prior to putting in the implant and failed to foresee and meet with post implant complications.
Ops have failed to establish as to why the combo was necessary and why care was not taken to ensure that it was functioning properly, why infection took place if the combo was satisfactorily installed. They also failed to show as to why they abruptly stopped medicine Cordarone.
If excess dose has been infused earlier, it could have been and should have been reduced slowly instead of being stopped at once.
Complainants are entitled to cost of litigation as claimed by them which is Rs 55,000 for litigation of about 7 years. To sum up, Ops are directed to pay jointly and severally a sum of Rs 42,55,000 to the complainants.
The hospital may fix the liability of OP 3 and 4 at its own level to recover the said amount from OP No. 3 and OP No. 4, after paying the amount to the complainants. Matter came up as First Appeal.
On Thursday (January 11) Atishaya Kaushal put in an appearance on behalf of Respondents (Complainants, Ramesh Gupta). She says that she will file her vakalatnama during the course of the day
List for hearing on admission on March 27, 2018.
—India Legal Bureau