Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP) costed Rs.1.80 Cr. to the Drs. alongwith Hospital !!

Neonate experts and Pediatricians to ponder over....



The Apex Court in the case of V. Krishnakumar V/s. State of Tamilnadu (AIR 2015 SC 2836, Civil Appeal no.8065/2009) has saddled the huge compensation upon the Drs for Negligence....




The Facts in nutshell may be read as under :




The female child weighing 1250 gms was born in 29th week of pregnancy to the Appellant and his wife in, August 1996 at the Government Hospital. But the neonatal expert and the paediatrician at the hospital never warned the parents that all babies born prematurely were prone to Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP) and that if early preventive measures were not taken, it could result in blindness.




The Appellant contended that Within a year of birth, they consulted many paediatricians in Chennai, Mumbai and Madurai, who said that because non-preventive medical measures were not taken, the child was on the verge of losing her eyesight as RoP stage-V, the final stage before blindness, had set in. The parents with lots of hope, went to USA for surgeries, but in vain. 




The Appellant approached S.C. as the National Commission by holding the Negligence to be proved, awarded Rs.5 lacks as compensation.
The report filed by AIIMS was also considered while giving the verdict.

The Apex Court observed "Advsie in nature of scrawl in corner of discharge paper that "mother informed about alarm signs was not sufficient to support the defence that sufficient precautions against eye disease that causes blindness in premature babies were taken". 
The Hospital ought to have advised parents that the baby is required to be seen by paediatric ophthalmologist since there was possibility ity of occurrence of ROP. 



Not only Drs but the Hospital were also negligent and deficient in their services as they did not inform parents about possibility of OCCURRENCE OF AN EYE DISEASE THAT CAUSES BLINDNESS, even the Drs at private clinics also did not advice for screening".



The Apex Court enhanced the compensation to Rs.1.38 crore and also awarded Rs 42 lakh as reimbursement of medical expenses, taking the total award to Rs 1.80 crore. The court held that parents of the victim are to be compensated for financial hardship faced by them in terms of lost wages and time and the Court adopted Standard future Value Formula to account for INFLATION !!!



One more aspect I  think is that this is the case of 20 years back... At that time the technology might not be that advanced like as on today... So such cases will rarely repeated in future.. won't they ?



THANKS AND REGARDS




ADV. ROHiT ERANDE
PUNE. ©

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