Bengaluru woman to get Rs 5 lakh compensation, 20 years after needle left in her body after surgery
Bengaluru, Jul 22: A Bengaluru based woman has been awarded a compensation of Rs five lakh by a consumer forum, nearly 20 years after a 3.2 centimetre surgical needle was left in her body following her surgery at a private hospital here.
The Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed the hospital and two doctors to pay Padmavathi, a resident of Jayanagar, Rs 50,000 as litigation expenses.
It has also directed New India Assurance Co Ltd, which had issued a policy covering the hospital expenses, to pay her Rs five lakh for "the professional and medical negligence caused."
The then 32-year-old woman underwent the surgery on September 29, 2004 at the Deepak Hospital, with the two doctors allegedly performing the hernia operation. On completion of the surgery, her appendix was also removed, according to the Commission's order last month.
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Immediately, on the next day, she complained of severe pain for which she was prescribed some pain killers and assured that it is post surgery discomfort and that it will get cured.
She suffered acute stomach and back pain for several years and was also admitted in the same hospital twice later, the order noted.
Padmavathi later approached another private hospital here in 2010 and during a scan, it was noticed that some foreign body existed in the abdominal and back portion of her body and it was suggested to her to get it (surgical needle) removed. She then underwent surgery and the 3.2 cm surgical needle was removed following which she approached the consumer forum with a complaint the following year.
The forum noted that the complainant was aged about 32 years, when she underwent all these surgeries and removal of the surgical needle. "Definitely she suffered severe pain and inconvenience till removal of the surgical needle," the order stated.
Hence, she is entitled to get "global compensation" of Rs five lakh and the insurance company (New India Assurance Company Limited) is directed to pay the amount while the two doctors are liable to pay litigation expenses of Rs 50,000 to the complainant, it further added.
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'Low-quality' catheters supplied to West Bengal govt hospitals at high price, probe ordered
Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal health department has launched a probe into the supplies of allegedly low-quality and locally made catheters at a high price to several government hospitals, posing a risk to the lives of patients undergoing treatment in these facilities, officials said.
Such central venous catheters (CVCs) were allegedly supplied to at least five medical colleges and hospitals in the state, defying allocation of international standard-compliant CVCs, they said.
The distribution company, which has been accused of supplying these catheters to government hospitals, admitted to the fault but placed the blame on its employees.
"We started checking stocks some time back and found these locally made CVCs in my hospital store. These catheters are of low quality as compared to those allocated by the state. We have informed the state health department," a senior official of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital told PTI.
Low-quality catheters were also found in the stores of other hospitals, which indicates "possible involvement of insiders in the scam", a health department official said.
The low-quality CVCs were supplied by a distributor in the Hatibagan area in the northern part of Kolkata for the last three to four months, he said.
"Such kinds of local CVCs are priced around Rs 1,500 but the distributor took Rs 4,177 for each device," the official said.
A CVC is a thin and flexible tube that is inserted into a vein to allow for the administration of fluids, blood, and other treatment. It's also clinically called a central line catheter.
"An initial probe revealed that the distribution company Prakash Surgical had supplied the low-quality and locally manufactured catheters to several government hospitals instead of the CVCs of the government-designated international company.
"All the units will be tested and a proper investigation is on to find out who benefited from these supplies," the health department official said.
The distribution company blamed its employees for the supply of inferior quality catheters.
"I was sick for a few months. Some employees of the organisation made this mistake. We are taking back all those units that have gone to the hospitals. It's all about misunderstanding," an official of the distribution company told PTI.
According to another state health department official, a complaint was lodged with the police in this connection.
Asked about how many patients were affected by the usage of such low-quality CVCs, the official said, "The probe would also try to find that out".
According to sources in the health department, some of the staff of the hospitals' equipment receiving departments and some local officials of international organisations might be involved in the alleged irregularities.
