CHENNAI: A consumer court in Chennai has directed the ESIC Hospital in Villivakkam to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to a private security guard who lost sight in one eye due to a botched cataract surgery. The Chennai (North) District Consumer Redressal Commission, comprising president D Gopinath and members Kavitha Kannan and V Ramamurthy, invoked the legal principle of res ipsa loquitur (the thing that speaks for itself) to conclude that the case amounted to medical negligence.
KT Dhanasekaran of Ponneri underwent cataract surgery at the ESIC hospital on May 9, 2024, after experiencing blurred vision. Six days later, his vision remained impaired, accompanied by severe irritation and pain. The hospital a week later advised another procedure to remove fragments left behind in the eye, he said in the complaint.
Despite a cortex wash, there was no improvement in his vision and he suffered from swelling, irritation, severe pain. It could not be corrected even after a procedure at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology in Egmore, leading him to conclude that a faulty surgery by ESIC hospital had resulted in blindness in the right eye.
Dhanasekaran stated that the failed surgery left him blind in his right eye, forcing him to lose his job as a security guard.
While the hospital denied medical negligence, it admitted that the patient suffered from mild corneal oedema (swelling of cornea) and iritis (inflammation of iris) — complications that persisted after the operation.
The commission observed that the hospital did not dispute the post-surgery complications and that the complainant was able to prove his vision was never restored despite subsequent treatments at other hospitals.
Citing multiple Supreme Court rulings on medical negligence, the commission held the hospital liable for deficiency in service and directed it to pay Rs 10 lakh to the complainant as compensation.