New Delhi
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered a Hyderabad hospital to pay Rs 47 lakh in compensation to the family of a policeman who died due to faulty administration of anaesthesia.
The order came in appeals filed by both Yashoda Hospital and D Uma Devi, wife of the deceased, before a bench of Justice J M Malik and commission member Dr S M Kantikar. Earlier, the state commission had ordered Rs 10 lakh in compensation holding the hospital responsible for medical negligence. In May 2008, D. Sadasiva Reddy, suffering from jaundice, was advised endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP) with CBD endoscopy. During the ERCP procedure, the doctors administered anaesthesia through Propofol drug, which resulted in fatal complications. Propofol was among the drugs which led to pop star Michael Jackson’s death. Reddy was brought out of the OT in a comatose state. He eventually became brain dead.
The hospital claimed Reddy had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Thereafter, the hospital refused to treat Reddy and decided to discharge him. Uma approached the state human rights commission, which directed the hospital to extend treatment till January 2009. Reddy died after two-and-a-half years at 42. The commission also observed that Reddy was under Aarogya Bharatha Scheme. “The hospital siphoned off government funds to the tune of Rs 12 lakh and when the outer limit got exhausted, started demanding money from the complainant for further treatment,” it said.
