Dancer sues hospital for Rs 5 cr after losing leg, instead of kidney stones

Rashmi Hingorani had not anticipated that she would step out with an amputated leg when she got herself admitted at PD Hinduja Hospital to remove kidney stones. The 41-year-old resident of Ulhasnagar went through multiple surgeries and a series of health complications in the less than two months that she was in hospital. On Monday, she sent a legal notice to the hospital and its doctors, accusing them of medical negligence, and demanding Rs5 crore as compensation.

A dancer by profession, Rashmi’s ordeal began on May 19, 2011, when she was admitted to Hinduja Hospital for a kidney stone surgery. “Her heart stopped beating after she was administered Tramzac drug injection following the surgery.

In the clinical papers, the doctors wrote that it could have been an analgesic reaction,” said Mahendar, Rashmi’s husband. “She was then shifted to the ICU for four days where her condition was stabilised with cardio pulmonary resuscitation.”

An intra-aortic balloon pump was inserted through Rashmi’s groin to stabilise blood flow to her heart. “After the pump was inserted, her hands and legs turned blue. There were multiple clots in the upper and lower limbs. While it took three surgeries to remove big clots from her right leg and hand, three smaller clots detected above the ankle were not removed. Eventually, her right leg turned gangrenous and had to be cut from below the knee,” Mahendar told dna.

Doctors at Hinduja denied the allegation that drug reaction resulted in her leg being amputated. “Bacterial infection due to the kidney stone looks like a likely cause of septicemia which spread in her body. It may have caused the cardiac arrest and septic infection leading to the amputation of her right limb,” said Dr Gustad Daver, medical director and surgeon at Hinduja.

“Also, there was no way the clots above the ankle could have been operated upon as they were very small in size, close to 2-3 mm,” Dr Daver said.

A team of six doctors was involved in performing back-to-back surgeries after Rashmi’s health started deteriorating. It was the first time that a woman who was admitted with kidney stones had to have her limb amputated, the doctors said.

They added that it was to save her life. The Hingoranis though aren’t convinced and are planning to drag the hospital to consumer court for medical negligence.

“One kidney stone surgery turned into seven major surgeries, including an amputation that led to my wife losing her right lower limb. We had to change three prosthetic legs as the first two did not fit her. The current prosthetic leg costs more than Rs2 lakh and has to be changed every three years. Every year, we spend Rs 65,000 on maintenance,” said Mahendar. “We have demanded Rs5 crore from the hospital as compensation for recurring costs.”

Experts, too, are baffled with the incident, saying it was rare. “It is very uncommon that a person who has been admitted for kidney stones has to get her leg amputated due to septic infection,” said Dr N Hase, head of department, nephrology at the BMC-run KEM Hospital.

Traumatic times
Rashmi underwent kidney stone removal surgery on May 20, 2011. She collapsed the next day, allegedly due to an analgesic reaction to a painkiller injection. Her heart had stopped beating. She was revived and an intra-aortic balloon pump device was inserted in her groin.

Her right leg and hand developed clots; two were removed, three in the right leg weren’t. She then developed gangrene in the right leg which needed amputation.