Holding a charitable hospital responsible for depriving a four-day infant of his mother after the woman died following a caesarean operation, the Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Guru Nanak Mission Hospital, Urapar, Nawanshahar to pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the child. Two doctors — Dr Munish Kansal of Kansal Hospital and Maternity Home in Nawanshahar and Dr Parminder Kaur of Guru Nanak Mission Hospital in Nawanshahar — have been directed to pay the compensation jointly.Justice S N Aggarwal said, “No amount is sufficient to compensate the loss of human life. Grant of compensation is a small consolation, a little financial help to a family which is thrown abruptly in different circumstances.”The complainant, Harbhajanjit Singh, a resident of Thammanwal village in Jalandhar, said in his complaint that he married Sunita Rani, a resident of Urapar village. She went to stay with her parents after getting pregnant. She was medically examined by Dr Parminder Kaur, who told her that she would need a caesarean for the delivery. She had an arrangement with Dr Munish Kansal of Kansal Hospital and Maternity Home and was told that it would cost Rs 15,000. Sunita Rani was admitted in the hospital on August 8, 2002. The caesarean was conducted and a male child was born.It was further pleaded that on August 11, 2002, the condition of Sunita Rani worsened while she was still in the hospital. The doctors told her husband that she would need a second surgery. It was alleged that Dr Parminder Kaur and Dr Munish Kansal tried to stop her bleeding by applying additional stitches in a callous manner without anesthesia. The stitches were also given in the most unhygienic conditions. The request of the complainant to refer Sunita Rani to some other hospital also fell on deaf ears. She was then sent to the maternity home of Dr Munish Kansal but there too, the blood flow could not be controlled, after which, Sunita breathed her last.In his reply, Dr Parminder Kaur pleaded that the patient was handled by a midwife prior to being treated by them. The Commission ruled that instead of taking the patient lightly, the doctors should have given some serious thought to her deteriorating condition. “Normal treatment was given in a situation which called for radical treatment urgently. It is clear that the patient was not rendered proper post-operation care,” said Justice S N Aggarwal.The commission also held that it is the son who is the real sufferer as he lost his mother while the father has remarried. Of the Rs 2 lakh to be paid as compensation, 75 per cent will be deposited by the father in the name of the minor, Harshpreet Singh, which can be withdrawn after he turns a major,” the Commission added.
