Apex consumer commission has directed a Kerala hospital and two of its doctors to pay Rs 12 lakh as compensation to a woman for medical negligence that had resulted in the death of her unborn baby in 2009.

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has asked Cosmopolitan Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram and its doctors Subhardra Nair and Krishna Kumar P K to jointly pay Rs 12 lakh to Veena Krishnan who was in the last stage of her pregnancy at the time of the incident in 2009. Krishnans child had died in the womb due to dilated cardiomyopathy. It is a condition in which hearts ability to pump blood is decreased.

The commission noted that the doctors were inattentive for not taking cardiac evaluation of Krishnan at an earlier stage and that could have prevented the death of her baby.

NCDRC President R K Agrawal and member M Shreesha said that the appellant (Hospital) and treating doctors were negligent in not performing a cardiac evaluation at the earlier stage, that could have prevented the loss of the baby and also the following treatment the patient had to undergo.

The commission took note of the Medical Boards submissions which has denied negligence on the part of the doctors but opined that chest X-ray and cardiac evaluation should have been done earlier. NCDRC also noted in its order that the findings of the Commission won’t have any effect on the two doctors profession.

Krishnan, an asthmatic patient, was being treated at Cosmopolitan hospital right from the beginning of her pregnancy. She had complained of breathlessness but the doctors failed to perform Electrocardiography (ECG) at that time.

The state commission in its order stated that the doctors failed to evaluate Krishnans condition meticulously and did not refer her for cardiac evaluation thus falling below reasonable standards of medical parlance. The hospital and the doctors contradicted all claims of negligence levelled against them and said that taking ECG is not the standard protocol every time any patient complains of breathlessness.

Source: ET Healthworld