SC has ordered it to pay compensation of 3 million rupees for administering wrong injection
KATHMANDU, JULY 28
The Supreme Court has held Kanti Children's Hospital guilty of negligence and ordered it to pay compensation of three million rupees for injecting the wrong medicine to an eight-month-old, causing physical disability, hearing loss, and vision impairment.
Eight-month-old Alok Baral had been admitted to the hospital's emergency ward on 6 July 2016 after the child developed throat problems. The child's father stated in his appeal that a nurse injected the child Montaz IV vaccine after which the child developed complications.
This order was passed by a division bench of Justice Hari Prasad Phuyal and Til Prasad Shrestha in response to a case filed by the child's father Dhruba Kumar Bishwakarma against Kanti Children's Hospital.
The bench observed that Kanti Children's Hospital committed negligence because the hospital neither clearly mentioned the treatment method nor did it seek the consent of the child's parents while treating the child at its emergency ward.
The top court said the hospital acted negligently by administering the child the wrong medicine. It said the hospital nurse gave the medicine, which was to be administered on a different patient to the child. The complications that the child suffered was consistent with the side effects of Montaz IV.
The court said the child needed adequate compensation given the lifelong physical disability he suffered. It said the compensation amount was determined on the basis of the money his parents spent on his treatment and the misery he and his family went through and the child's com-pulsion to depend on somebody all his life, and the estimated cost his family would have to bear in the future for his treatment. The court stated that Kanti Children Hospital referred the child to a different hospital at 2:00am showing it did not fulfil its obligation to care for the child. Hydrocortison Injection 85 mg was given twice to the child and the attending nurse gave another injection at around 11:30pm on the day the child was admitted at the hospital.
The child's father stated in his case that his child developed multiple life-threatening complications after the nurse gave a third injection. The child's father had filed a case under Consumer Protection Act demanding compensation of Rs 5.4 million.
Patan Hospital diagnosed that the child was suffering from physical disability and could not be cured.
Kanti Children Hospital had stated that it did not administer the wrong medicine on the child and he was suffering from perinatal insult to brain parenchyma with leukomalacia (chronic morbidity) as a result of which the child suffered physical disability.
The court, however, ruled that the hospital lied to the court about the medicine given to the child and the child's treatment.
Kathmandu District Compensation Committee had awarded Rs 1.5 million compensation to the victim.
The child's father stated in his appeal that the medication injected by the attending nurse was meant for a 10-year-old child Shambhu BK.
The child was put on ventilator for 18 months. Eighteen months after the incident, the child could not move his leg.
His vision and hearing capacity was impaired. The verdict was delivered on February 8, the full texts of which was prepared this week.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 29, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
