New Delhi: Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Tamil Nadu government to pay a whopping Rs 1.72 crore as compensation and reimbursement of medical expenses to a girl who lost her vision due to negligence at a government hospital.
A bench comprising Justices J S Khehar and S A Bobde, which had reserved its verdict in the case on April 8, allowed the plea filed by her father V Krishnakumar.
The girl had lost her vision due to the negligence during retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) surgery at a government hospital in Chennai in 1996. ROP is a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants weighing around one kg.
The bench directed that Rs 1.3 crore would be paid as compensation and Rs 42.8 lakh would be towards reimbursement of medical expense.
The Supreme Court enhanced the compensation of Rs 5 lakh awarded by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
Krishnakumar's wife Laxmi was admitted in Government Hospital for Women and Children at Egmore in Chennai on August 30, 1996 and gave birth to a premature girl child, who was placed in an incubator in intensive care unit for 25 days until discharged on September 23, 1996.
It was alleged that the hospital authorities did not alert the parents about the consequences of administering "supplemental oxygen, blood transfusion" that she was prone to "retinal detachment". The hospital also did not inform the parents that they
needed to show their daughter to an ophthalmologist and never recommended about the risk of ROP.
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