Parents of a 24-year-old man, with stalled mental development as a result of complications during his birth, Saturday protested the Padma award to a local woman doctor they blame for his condition.
In 2006, after a long and protracted legal battle, the parents of Naveen Thomas alias Chakkara won recompense with the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission ordering the Cosmopolitan Hospital here and two doctors to pay Rs.11.35 lakh compensation for making him a 'vegetable' because of delivery complications that arose out of medical negligence.
Of the two doctors, Subadra Nair Saturday figured in the list of Padma awardees and this irked Shibhu Thomas, father of Chakkara.
"I am shocked to hear that this doctor has been conferred a Padma award. What she did was a criminal offence by way of dereliction of duty and it is most unfortunate that she has been given the award. I will certainly take up the issue and look into all aspects on how I can make the central government reverse their decision," said Thomas, a banker by profession.
Ever since he was born Dec 13, 1989 at the Cosmopolitan hospital here, Chakkara is not sound mentally and all he does is to cry on and off and constantly fall down as he tries to walk in his house.
Nair, who had reportedly returned from a pilgrimage, could not be reached for her comments despite several attempts by IANS.
