Army Hospital To Pay Damages: DELHI HC

Army Hospital To Pay Damages: DELHI HC 18 Jan 2009, 0000 hrs IST, Abhinav Garg, TNN NEW DELHI: A former army officer's wife who miraculously survived a botched up medical treatment, has won damages from the Delhi High Court which has held doctors of Army Referral Hospital in the Capital guilty of medical negligence. Incidentally, this is one of the rarest of cases where a court has indited an army hospital for medical negligence. Awarding damages to the tune of almost Rs 12.5 lakh to Sudha Garg, wife of a retired army brigadier, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, in a recent verdict, HC asked the government and army authorities including chief of army staff to pay her the money immediately. Since she developed complications owing to negligence from the year 2000 onwards, HC has also compounded the interest at 10% on this amount from that year. Sudha had her food pipe badly ruptured because of improper insertion of a flexible tube by army doctors who were carrying out an Upper Gastro Intestinal Endoscopy (UGIE). "She has survived and is hale and hearty. However, the pain and agony which she underwent during her hospitalisation from Oct 25, 1999 till Jan 24, 2000 is understandable and shouldn't be ignored. She had to be repeatedly operated to drain out puss and debris. Nasal and mouth feed were not possible and a tube had to be inserted in the small intestine,'' an apalled court noted while calculating damages caused to Sudha for "suffering pain and mental agony.'' The victim had moved HC through her lawyers Manish Vashisht and Sameer Vashisht, after army authorities ignored Sudha and her husband's claim for damages. In her recovery suit, she informed HC how the UGIE by army doctors attempted on her on 15th Oct 1999, damaged her food pipe due to which air filled up the space between her lungs and caused puss formation. These complications almost snuffed out her life and it was only after a painful recuperation at Batra Hospital for months that she pulled it through. Justice Khanna explained the specifics of negligence by the doctors, saying they were "aware of the risks and symptoms associated but didn't take remedial steps and precautions by asking the patient to come for a follow up. Medicines were prescribed for 12 days without explaining the risk factor.'' The army authorities had challenged her claims alleging she hid from them the fact she had undergone an operation of her tongue changing the anatomy of her mouth, making it difficult for an endoscopy to be administered.

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