The State Consumer Commission has ordered Amar Jain Hospital at Chaura Rasta to compensate Rs 15 lakh for medical negligence causing death of a patient. Commission’s judicial member K K Bagdi and member Meena Mehta had given this order on the complaint of Anil Sharma and others.

In the order, the commission said that the hospital and doctor Dr Arun Jain should pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh from May 6, 2015 with 9% interest. Also, a fixed deposit of Rs 10 lakh should be made in the name of both the sons of the deceased, Yash and Krish, with interest given to them on attaining 18 years.

According to the case, the complainant filed a petition in the commission against the hospital and others which stated that his wife Shalu Sharma was admitted to the hospital with breathing difficulties due to cold and fever.She was given medicine and various tests were conducted, however no senior doctor came to attend her. In the X-ray report, the doctors said that her lungs had started to shrink which resulted in difficulty in breathing. When the complainant asked the hospital staff to shift his wife to ICU, he was informed that there was no ICU in the hospital.

Following four days, the patient’s health deteriorated and when he asked for discharge, he was asked to sign on blank papers. The hospital did not even provide an ambulance to shift her to another hospital. When she was admitted to another hospital, it was diagnosed that the victim was suffering from swine flu by the doctors.

The petitioner alleged that due to the negligence of the doctors at Amar Jain Hospital, his wife was not treated for swine flu on time, which took her life. The commission imposed the compensation of Rs 15 lakh on the hospital and doctors, considering the gross negligence of the hospital administration in the case and also the delay in referral to another hospital, counting the absence of ICU in the hospital.