A case of two medical compensations

In 1996 a women was admitted to Delhi based Parmarth Mission Hospital for delivery of her third child. Within days both she and her baby died. She died because after the caesarean operation the doctors forgot to remove a sponge from her body and left a tag inside which could not be traced for days. The child died because the hospital did not have necessary facility to take care of new-born.

 

After fighting for 11 years, the State Commission found medical negligence on part of the hospital and awarded the victim's husband, Yudh Vir Singh Chauhan, a compensation of Rs 50,000. On appealing to the Apex Consumer Commission, the compensation was increased to Rs 4.1 lakh.

 

Two years after the poor woman died in Delhi, another one died in Mumbai. She was air-lifted to Mumbai after a case of medical negligence in a famous Kolkata Hospital. Her husband was awarded a record Rs 11 crore (including interest) as compensation.

 

How can two lives have different compensations.

 

The record compensation paid to Dr Kunal Saha for the death of her wife Anuradha Saha has raised hopes of patients seeking legal compensations. The sheer size of the compensation has shocked the medical community in India.

 

Kunal Saha in an interview in Times of India said that he had carried the long struggle to change the prevailing system in India which treats patients like guinea pigs. There have been cases in the past, he adds, where doctors had to shell out Rs 1-2 lakhs as compensation, but it couldn't make any difference. Which is why Kunal Saha asked to be compensated to the extent of Rs 77 crore, when he went to the Supreme Court.

 

Still the difference between the two cases are too huge to be ignored. How did the Supreme Court arrive at the figure of Rs 5.96 crore, which after adding an interest of 6 per cent for each year totals Rs 11 crore.

 

Kunal Saha in his 'Grounds for Appeal' seeking Rs 77 crore had argued the potential loss on account of revenue of Anuradha, who herself was a child psychologist in the USA. Her salary levels and earning potential that too in dollars (court calculated the loss at an exchange rate of 55 to the dollar) plus the expenses incurred by Kunal Saha for which had to sell his house, file for bankruptcy and go on long leave from his work and mental trauma added up to the amount.  

 

Unfortunately a housewife's work who has left behind two minor children, cannot be quantified as per law, which is why seeking higher compensation for them in case of medical negligence is difficult, as was the case in Yudh Vir's wife.

 

Another point that went in favour of Kunal Saha was that he himself is a doctor and understands the nuances and mistakes made. Doctors who are called by the court or the state commission generally do not clearly point out the mistakes of their colleagues. In medical terms to some extent they might be right as it is difficult to establish with 'certainty' cause of death. In the case of Yudh Vir's wife, doctors had accepted that there was a case for medical negligence but said the same could not have been a case for her death.

 

Being a doctor and having seen how cases move from one date to another, Kunal Saha argued his own case in the Supreme Court. The clarity in his argument and the zeal of a husband seeking justice for his wife helped in conveying the message across.

 

Finally, Kunal Saha had the money and the drive to take the case to its logical conclusion. Though Yudh Vir too tenaciously fought the case to its logical end, few out there do it, which is why most of the doctors and hospitals go scot free.

 

Medical fraternity has much to be scared of from this case. Not that there will be similar compensation to Indian patients, but the bar has just been raised several notch higher.

 

We should also not discount the creativity of lawyers in future cases. In the US lawyers get paid a portion of the compensation. If the same trend starts in India, doctors will need a dose of their own medicine.