State Has To Compensate Unforeseen Death Or Injury In Govt Hospital Even If There Is No Medical Negligence : Madras High Court

FACTS OF THE CASE

In the instant case, the Petitioner's daughter, aged 8, was suffering from tonsils and had been admitted at the Government Hospital, Aruppukottai for treatment. She was suggested to undergo surgery, and in that process, was administered anesthesia. Consequently, complications arose and, she was shifted to Rajaji Government Hospital, Madurai wherein she went into coma and eventually passed away.

COURT'S OBSERVATIONS

The Single-Judge Bench noted that the child had developed complications following the administration of anesthesia and before the surgery could be performed on her, due to which it had been submitted by the Counsel for the Petitioner that there was negligence on behalf of the anesthetist.

Stating that medical negligence required factual determination, the Court observed that the drug which had been administered to the child was not an intrinsically dangerous drug, but it could lead to complications for children with mitochondrial diseases. However, it was noted that there was nothing on record to indicate that the deceased child had such a disease which went unnoticed by the doctors.

"There are always instances when a drug does not accord with the body of the patient and that leads to unfortunate complications. The case on hand appears to be one such. Therefore, I do not find any ground to hold that the respondent anesthetists have committed any act of medical negligence".

However, even though the Court rejected the allegation of medical negligence, it remarked that the Petitioner belonged to a notified Scheduled Caste community and that the child had been admitted to a government hospital.

In this context, the Court held that "when a patient is admitted to a hospital and suffers any injury or death which is not anticipated to occur in the normal course of events, even in the absence of medical negligence, the government is obliged to disburse ex-gratia to the affected party".

The Court registered that the Tamil Nadu has created a corpus fund toward which every Government doctor contributes a certain sum of money, and accordingly directed for the compensation of Rs. 5 lacs to be paid to the Petitioner from this fund within a period of eight weeks from the date of receipt of copy of the instant order.

CASE NAME: Tamil Selvi v. State of Tamil Nadu & Ors.
CASE NO.: Writ Petition (MD) No. 2721 of 2017
FOR PETITIONER: Mr. R. Karunanidhi
FOR RESPONDENTS: Mr. C Ramar for R1 to R7 and R11, Mr. T. Lajapathi Roy for Mr. C. Prithviraj and for R8 to R10.