Hinduja hospital ordered to pay Rs 2 lakh for "negligence"

MUMBAI, November 14: What started off as a simple pus discharge from a patient's chest nearly six years ago turned out to be costly for Hin...

MUMBAI, November 14: What started off as a simple pus discharge from a patient’s chest nearly six years ago turned out to be costly for Hinduja hospital. The hospital, along with its insurance company and a doctor, has been ordered by the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission to pay Rs 2 lakh to John Andrade, who underwent a bypass surgery at the hospital and was infected during the post-operative period due to negligence of staff.

Suffering from pain in the torso, John was admitted to Hinduja hospital to undergo a bypass surgery on four clogged arteries. He was operated upon on July 9, 1991, by Dr Kaushal Pandey and Navneet Kumar, and discharged on July 20. Nearly a month later, John noticed a smelly fluid oozing out from the portion of his chest which was operated upon.

When he approached the hospital, he was advised to take an antibiotic, Ampilox, to stop the discharge. When that failed, he was prescribed another antibiotic, Sporidex. As there was no improvement in his condition, he was subjected to a pus culture on September 20, more than two months after the operation. The culture test revealed infection in his sternum, and as a remedial measure, it was decided that the three wires which held the bone together should be removed. Medical procedures state in case of infection during the post-operative period, the wound should be reopened and cleaned of foreign bodies.

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However, during the operation, only two wires were removed. The third wire was removed during a third operation in November that year. Thereafter, he was put on antibiotics, but oozing of pus continued till July 1992, when an operation he underwent at JJ Hospital after intensive pre-operation tests revealed extensive damage to tissues in his chest and an infection called Osteomyelitis, which had attacked the sternum.

In his report on the matter, Dr Rachmale of JJ hospital noted that though such infections are common in the post-operative period, early detection and prompt treatment would have resulted in quick healing of the wound.

During the hearing of his case, John claimed though he went to Hinduja hospital for dressing his wounds daily, he was treated only in the out patient department, where he was exposed to all sorts of infections. But the court held the patient had been infected at the hospital. It noted that Dr Pandey had been very casual in his approach to the situation, and that there was gross negligence on the part of the hospital staff.