MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a woman for administering an expired drug to her husband during his treatment at the district headquarters hospital in Sivagangai in 2021. The order was passed by Justice N Anand Venkatesh on a petition filed by R Rajeswari, seeking compensation of `1 crore, alleging that due to the negligence of the hospital staff, her husband Ramadoss died of cardiac arrest, three days after being administered the drug.
The government, in its counter affidavit, contended the deceased, who was 74 years old, had several comorbidities. It further claimed the expiry date of the drug Dextrose was noticed by the staff nurse before administration and hence not a single drop of the expired drug was transfused into the man’s body.
However, the petitioner’s counsel produced video footage shot by the deceased’s son, which showed half of the drug was transfused into Ramadoss’ body. Noting this, the judge said it was unfortunate that the authorities concealed this fact, but pointed out from the death summary that Ramadoss died of cardiac arrest.
Since no material was placed before the court to show administering the expired drug lead to cardiac arrest, the court cannot conclude that negligence caused Ramadoss’ death, the judge added. However, considering the anxiety and mental agony suffered by the petitioner’s son due to the negligence of the hospital staff, the judge directed the government to pay Rs 1 lakh compensation to the petitioner within six weeks.