SC awards techie Rs 1-cr compensation

A three-member Bench of Justices B N Agrawal,G S Singhvi and H S Bedi said,We have no other option but to conclude that the attending doctors were seriously remiss in the conduct of the operation and it was on account of this neglect the paraplegia had set in.

Prashant,who went to the hospital for removal of a tumour on September 19,1990,in chest cavity,was negligently operated upon by doctors resulting in the medical condition known as paraplegia which rendered him paralytic for life. The disability,which struck him when he was 20,made him incapable of performing his personal chores.

Despite being paralysed from chest downwards Prashant,39,works for 12 to 13 hours per day. In 1998,four years after he became an engineer and eight years after he was left paralysed,Prashant got his first job when the head of a software company saw him receive an international award for writing a series of papers in the niche technology area of CORBA.

On Thursday when the SC order came,Prashant was at work as usual. We spoke briefly over the phone. He asked,is it enough for me to live for 75 years. He knows its very little compared to what he has lost, his mother Indira Sheshadri said,as she waited for Prashant to come home.

It was 9:30 pm when the senior project engineer at Infosys arrived. Once a champion swimmer and a tennis player,Prashant now needs a personal attendant for everything he does from turning him every three hours in the night to sitting up.

I need to take breaks every half-an-hour to do exercises to prevent my body from becoming stiff. If others take 30 minutes to get ready to go to work,I need three hours. I need to be at work 12 to 13 hours to achieve an output of nine hours. I am 39 now and I dont know how long I will be able to sustain this, he says.

Though happy with the order,Prashant said the compensation was much less than the figure of Rs 7 crore he had sought after scientific computation. According to him the IT career takes care of his day-to-day needs,but he would need additional resources to pay for his personal attendants and physiotherapists.

I am happy to have set a precedent for victims of medical negligence. I respect doctors,but those who show apathy to patients and their profession must pay for damages, he said. 8220;He is sage-like about his life. I call him Prashant mahasagara Pacific Ocean,8221; said his mother.