Hospitals can’t treat life as cheap

Pushpa Girimaji

The horrific case of an alive newborn being declared dead by the doctors at Max Hospital in New Delhi really shocked me. If the parents, on their way to the crematorium, hadn’t noticed the child’s movements inside the plastic bag in which the child was wrapped, they would have cremated a living child. Can the parents haul up the hospital before the consumer court for negligence? What else can be done to prevent such incidents in future?

Thanks to media attention on the case, Delhi’s health minister ordered an enquiry into the shocking incident. At the time of writing, the hospital chain’s Shalimar Bagh entity had lost its licence. A preliminary report of the three-member panel constituted by the Delhi government had found that the hospital did not follow the prescribed medical norms in declaring dead, a living and breathing newborn. The Delhi Medical Council is also looking into the conduct of the doctors and has promised action against those responsible for medical negligence. The police have registered an FIR under Section 308 of the Indian Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

An impartial probe and quick and stringent action against the guilty will send out a clear message that such acts of carelessness and negligence will not be condoned. Of course, consumers and the media should keep up the pressure on the government to ensure that money power does not dilute the case or let the guilty get away.

In addition to these measures, the parents can file a complaint before the consumer court, seeking compensation from the doctors/hospital for their callous negligence and its effect on the baby as well as the parents.

Are there any precedents?

The consumer courts have taken serious note of such cases of medical negligence and I particularly remember one such case decided by the Meghalaya State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in 2003. The case has its origin in June 1995, when Ms Rose Mary Lyngdoh took her twin infants, who were ill, to a private clinic in Shillong. After examining the babies, the doctor declared that one of the twins was “brought dead” . He even declined the mother’s plea to re-examine the child declared as dead, saying that it served no purpose.

Following this, the bereaved father of the child decided to bury it in his village and his brother-in-law even ordered a coffin. But the mother was unwilling to accept it and rushed both the twins to a hospital. There, the doctors found the child to be alive. The twins were treated there and after they got well and were discharged, the parents decided to hold the first doctor accountable for his callous negligence.

When the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum in Shillong held the doctor guilty of negligence, he filed an appeal before the State Commission and argued that it was ‘ just an error’ on his part. Moreover, as the child was not buried alive and the agony of the parents was short-lived, there was no cause for awarding the parents any compensation! 

Rejecting such a plea and directing the doctor to pay a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakhs along with 15 per cent interest to the parents, the Commission observed: “If informing the parents that their child was dead and writing ‘Brought Dead’ on the discharge slip was not an act of negligence, but ‘just an error’, as alleged by him, we wonder which other act would constitute medical negligence. The appellant, a licenced doctor, could not afford to make a ‘mistake’ of such gravity as pronouncing a live human being as dead.”

The Commission further said: “We can imagine the shock, sorrow and pain of a child’s parents when they are told by a doctor that their infant child is dead. The mental agony that they undergo cannot be measured in length of time. Moreover, in our opinion, the matter needs to be looked at not only from the angle of what happened but also seen from the perspective of what could have happened and yet, mercifully did not happen. Inevitably, an innocent child would have been buried alive and, worst of all, no one would have even known.” (Dr ML Deb Vs Smt Rose Mary Longdoh, appeal no 12 (M) of 1997)

Orders such as this should serve as a warning to hospitals and medical professionals who do not take their duties and responsibilities seriously.