INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, July 3
The Supreme Court today ordered the state-owned Paropakar Maternity and Women Hospital and one of its doctors to pay Rs
500,000 each as compensation to a person who became the victim of medical negligence.
A division bench of justices Purushottam Bhandari and
Tanka Bahadur Moktan upheld the erstwhile PatanAppellate Court (now high court) verdict delivered in a case filed by Surya Kumari
Adhikari.
Patan Appellate Court had upheld the District Compensation Committee Kathmandu verdict that had ordered Rs 500,000 each to be paid
by Paropakar Maternity and Women Hospital and Dr Achala Devi Vaidya to Adhikari as compensation.
According to Forum for Protection of
Consumer Rights lawyer Jyoti Baniya who pleaded on behalf of Adhikari, the doctor who was ordered by the lower court to pay Rs 500,000 did
not appeal the Patan Appellate Court verdict, but the hospital had filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, challenging the lower court
verdict.
Today the SC upheld the lower court verdict
This means both Dr Vaidya and the hospital will have to pay Rs 500,000 each, to Adhikari.
According to Baniya when Adhikari went to
Paropakar Hospital, doctors told her that her unborn baby was overweight, but instead of performing C-section on her, the tending doctor
recommended vacuum assisted delivery
Assisting staff of the doctor pulled the baby out of the mother womb, at the fourth attempt.
Baniya said that the bungled delivery led to
paralysis of arms and legs of the baby, who is now undergoing physical therapy.
Adhikari had visited the hospital on 27 February 2007 for
delivery but the doctors had discharged her outright, saying she would require C-section as her baby was overweight
Later, she was admitted at the hospital on 10 March 2007 and as she was in intense labour pain she had requested the doctor for surgery
Both the doctor and nurses ignored her request.
On March 16 vacuum assisted method was used to pull the baby out of the mother
womb.
Adhikari had claimed a compensation of Rs 8230,000 from the defendants.
The hospital had been claiming that the vacuum assisted method
was appropriate for the delivery of the baby in Adhikari case.
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