BMC hospital told to pay deceased's kin for negligence

Mumbai suburban district's consumer redressal forum on Tuesday held BMC-run MW Desai Muncipal Hospital in Malad and two of its doctors guilty of providing faulty services to a consumer, which resulted in her death. Holding the doctors, hospital and civic body guilty of negligence, the forum has directed them to pay a total compensation of Rs4.05 lakh to the deceased's kin.

As per the forum's order copy, Khar resident and civic worker Ganga Gohil in August 2001 was advised to get admitted in MW Desai hospital for undergoing a surgery to remove gall bladder through laparoscopy.

"Gohil had diabetes mellitus and the treatment was irregular. On July 4, 2001, she underwent an ultrasonography, which revealed 1.5-cm stones in her gall bladder... On August 9, 2001, she got herself admitted in the hospital," the order copy reads.

Hospital authorities did her ECG and X-ray but allegedly failed to conduct blood test. "Dr Jugal Agrawal, who operated on the deceased, acted in a careless, casual and negligent manner... without checking the fitness of the deceased to undergo anaesthesia. No measures were taken to raise the haemoglobin level or control the sugar level...," reads the order copy.

It also claimed that Dr Jyoti Shroff too acted in a negligent way while administering anaesthesia to the deceased.

Also, when the deceased suffered a respiratory arrest, she had to be shifted to Nair hospital as MW Desai hospital lacked infrastructure. She was taken in an ordinary ambulance instead of a cardiac one. It took nearly an hour to reach and the deceased was admitted around 7.25pm in Nair hospital and declared dead around 8.30pm.

Thus, Gohil's family members approached the forum seeking compensation.