Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Mar 21: Dakshina Kannada district Consumers Grievances Redressal Forum has upheld the complaint that had accused an obstetrician and hospital staff of being negligent during delivery, and thus causing the deaths of the mother and the unborn baby. The forum has passed an order, instructing doctor of a hospital at Puttur, identified as Poorna C Rao, to pay compensation of Rs 17,43,440 to the aggrieved.

Swapna Rai, daughter of Kamalaksha Rai, resident of Alankaru Parari in Perabe village in the taluk, had been admitted into a hospital at Puttur at 9.30 pm on December 28, 2010. Swapna died on the night of December 29. The unborn baby too died in the womb. Kamalaksha Rai thereafter filed a complaint in the district consumers forum accusing the obstetrician and hospital staff of negligence, which he claimed, had accounted for the death of his daughter and her unborn child.

The obstetrician had recorded in the hospital record that Swapna Rai had died of a rare complication known as amniotic fluid embolism. However, postmortem report stated that she died due to acute lung defect. Rai said that no effort to save the pregnant woman was made and actual health complication which had caused the death had not been determined through specific processes. As per the rules of obstetrics science, the deceased woman, who suffered heart attack, should have been operated upon within four minutes to save the child, he said with which the forum too agreed.

The district consumers grievances redressal form, taking into account the above facts, concluded that this is a case of medical professional negligence. The compensation of Rs 17,43,440 has been ordered to be paid to the first son of the deceased and her father. The verdict was delivered by president of the forum, Vishweshwar Bhat D.