NCDRC awards Rs 25 lakh compensation for death due to hospital’s negligence

New Delhi: The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has awarded compensation of Rs 25 lakh for medical negligence to the wife of a patient who died in the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore.

The bench of Dr. S.M. Kantikar and Mr. Dinesh Singh awarded the compensation to the deceased patient’s wife.

The complaint stated that her husband, 58, had a history of pain in his left arm after engaging in strenuous activity. In 2009, the patient visited the hospital’s outpatient department complaining of pain in his left arm on exertion. Diagnosed with coronary artery disease, he was admitted to the hospital and advised an angioplasty. 

The hospital began administering doses of Heparin to the patient, without explaining the reasons for this treatment or obtaining his consent. 

The patient complained to the hospital authorities of bleeding and disorientation, but this was ignored. It is stated that they continued administering the drug which was the cause of the bleeding (Heparin), only to be informed later that he had suffered a stroke and there was an immediate need for a CT scan.

It was averred by the patient’s family that the delay in treatment and the improper administration of Heparin led to anticoagulation, resulting in brain hemorrhage, a stroke, and ultimately his demise.

The hospital argued that the complaint was based on a suppression of facts that could not be adequately adjudicated in a Consumer Redressal Forum. They disputed the day of his admission into the hospital and claimed that consent was not normally required before administering heparin. That he opted for a CABG over an angioplasty, they further contended.

The National Consumer Commission found that the administration of Heparin was not improper according to established medical practice, but held the hospital was negligent for the inordinate delay in treatment after the patient suffered a stroke.

Further, the Heparin administration was not stopped despite the stroke the patient suffered, nor was an antidote used.

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The commission accepted the complainant’s arguments ruling that the deficiency and medical negligence was conclusively demonstrated. Therefore, to compensate for the doctors’ negligence, an amount of “Rs 25 lakh, with interest at 8 percent per annum from the date of the death of the patient till its realization,” was granted to the patient’s wife.

Read the Order here;

-India Legal Bureau