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Madras High Court: State to Compensate Unforeseen Death or Injury Regardless of Medical Negligence
Case: Tamil Selvi v. State of Tamil Nadu & Ors.
Writ Petition (MD) No. 2721 of 2017
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the government of Tamil Nadu to provide monetary compensation of INR 5 lakhs to Tamil Selvi, the petitioner of the case. The single bench of Justice G.R. Swaminathan held that if a patient is admitted to a government hospital and suffers any injury or death during the treatment which usually does not occur under normal circumstances, the state is obliged to provide the wronged party compensation even in the absence of medical negligence.
Background
The petitioner's 8-year-old daughter was suffering from swollen tonsils (lymphoid organs located in the back of the throat) and was due to undergo treatment at the government hospital in Aruppukotai. The doctors suggested performing surgery on her and anesthesia was to be administered in the process. Complications arose when anesthesia was introduced in the girl's body and she was shifted to Rajaji Government Hospital in Madurai where she went into a coma and subsequently passed away.
The father of the girl accused the anesthetist of committing medical negligence and approached the court.
The court observed that although the anesthetic drug led to complications, which commonly happens to children with mitochondrial diseases, the drug itself is not considered dangerous or unsafe. There was nothing on record that would indicate that the girl had a disease of such sort which went unnoticed by the medical staff and showed the presence of medical negligence.
However, the court stated that the petitioner belongs to a scheduled caste and had admitted his daughter to a government hospital. Therefore, the state government was ordered by the court to pay INR 5 lakhs to the petitioner within the period of two months from the Tamil Nadu corpus fund in which every doctor of a government hospital in the state contributes a certain amount of money.
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