MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently directed the Family Welfare Department of the Government Medical College, Thoothukudi to pay Rs 60,000 in compensation to a man for failed sterilisation procedure performed by the hospital on his wife in 2018.
Justice V Lakshminarayan passed the order on a petition filed by S Rajasubramanian in 2022. According to Rajasubramanian, his wife underwent tubectomy in the hospital on March 21, 2018. However, she became pregnant two years later, due to the negligent manner in which hospital performed the procedure, he alleged.
The government advocate claimed there was no negligence from the hospital. Since the procedure undergone is tubal ligation, there is a rare possibility of conceiving again, as about only one in 200 women become pregnant after undergoing the procedure, because over time, the fallopian tubes could have grown back, she explained. Hence, there is an inherent risk of conception in all family planning operations and it is not a failed surgery due to negligence, the counsel added.
Hearing both sides, Justice Lakshminarayan noted that the health department passed a G.O. on May 31, 2022, fixing a compensation of Rs 60,000 for failure of the procedure. Based on the same, the judge directed the family welfare department to pay Rs 60,000 to the petitioner within two weeks.