CHENNAI: A trial court has directed the dean of the Institute of Child Health and Hospital in Egmore to pay Rs 20 lakh as compensation for transfusing HIV positive blood to a boy in 1998. The boy has now completed his diploma and is working for a private firm.
The boy’s parents approached the court first in 2009. Counsel P Uma, representing the family, submitted that the boy was 10 months old when he was admitted to the said hospital with diarrhoea and vomiting on February 26, 1999.
Doctors said his small and large intestines were found intertwined, treatment of which required surgery. Blood transfusion was done during the surgery. Within two days of the operation, the boy again fell ill, and was admitted to the same hospital. He was discharged on March 18, 1999. Within a few days, he developed a swelling on the neck accompanied by symptoms of flu. Based on the advise of a doctor at the Egmore hospital, he was taken to Tambaram Sanatorium Hospital. Tests confirmed the boy had contracted HIV.
His family then submitted a petition seeking Rs 25 lakh as compensation. They also filed a civil suit as per the liberty granted by High Court in a writ petition filed by the family after a direction to pay Rs 50,000 towards medical expenses. The hospital denied the charge. It claimed the blood bag no. 3467, which was used for the child, was screened for HIV and Hepatitis B as per the direction of Supreme Court.
They claimed that as per the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, the records are to be destroyed after five years. Hence, there was no record in the hospital pertaining to the incident which happened in 1999. The hospital also submitted that it had given Rs 50,000 as ordered by the High Court.
While passing her order on Saturday, Judge V Thenmozhe observed: “The hospital has not produced any documentary evidence to prove the fact that the blood transfused to the boy was tested or screened.” She said that though the hospital had claimed to have destroyed old records, there was no evidence produced by the hospital to prove the same.
The judge held that the doctors who treated the boy were liable for medical negligence. She ordered the payment of Rs 20 lakh to the boy along with six per cent interest from 2009, when the case was filed. The hospital was also directed to pay Rs 1,50,010 to the victim as legal expenses and suggested that he be given a government job.