BINOY DEKA Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The pain and agony of the daughter of the Petitioner on account of a rare complication diagnosed as Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM) and the incapacity of the Petitioner to cope up with the high cost of the treatment which in effect touches on the rights of the daughter to live a life with human dignity is the subject matter for consideration before this Court in the present proceedings.

(2.) The facts of the instant case as would reveal from a perusal of the writ petition are that a female child was born to the Petitioner at Sipajhar Public Health Centre on 28/11/2010. The child as per the Petitioner was fit and healthy and she was given all required vaccination at the time of her birth. On 14/11/2012, when the child was one and half year old, she was administered vaccine namely DPT-Booster, Measles 2nd OPU-Booster, Vita A 2nd dose at Anganbadi Centre in village Patgiri Chuba under Khash Sonapur Sub-Divisional Health Centre. At the time of vaccination, the infant daughter of the Petitioner was normal and in good health. However, pursuant to the administration of the said vaccine, the health condition of the daughter of the Petitioner started to deteriorate and after a while she fainted and her legs buckled under her. Thereafter, she started suffering from high fever and was not able to stand on her legs. The Petitioner stated in his writ petition that the infant daughter of the Petitioner was immediately admitted to Sipajhar PHC and on the advice of the doctors on duty, she was shifted to Mangoldoi Civil Hospital.

(3.) The Authority of the Mangoldoi Civil Hospital considering the serious and critical condition of the daughter of the Petitioner referred her to the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital at Guwahati (for short 'GMCH"). After reaching GMCH, the daughter of the Petitioner was immediately admitted at the ICU Pediatric Ward. The daughter of the Petitioner thereafter underwent treatment for almost three months in continuous stress and she was discharged from the GMCH on 5/1/2013. It was also mentioned in the writ petition that the daughter of the Petitioner though was discharged but till the date of filing of the writ petition in the year 2014, she was not able to walk and sit and she only lied on the bed. It was also mentioned that though, on the body of the discharge certificate of the daughter, the GMCH had recorded that her condition had improved but in reality, it was not so. It was also mentioned that during the course of the treatment, the Superintendent of the GMCH vide a communication dtd. 10/12/2012 issued a reimbursement bill amounting to Rs.16,567.00 in connection with the treatment of the daughter of the Petitioner for complicacies which arose due to wrong vaccination. It was averred in the writ petition that considering the degree of disability of the Petitioner's daughter, the reimbursement of the said medical expenses was not enough to meet the expenses of the best possible treatment. Under such circumstances, the Petitioner submitted a detailed representation on 4/3/2013 before the Mission Director, NRHM (now National Health Mission) by stating the entire facts which led to his daughter becoming permanently disabled pursuant to wrong vaccination in Government Civil Hospital. In the said representation, the Petitioner stated that due to his low income, it was impossible on his part to make arrangement for possible treatment for his daughter. It was also mentioned in the representation that the State Government had duly reimbursed the amount of Rs.16,567.00 but that was not adequate enough for the purpose of treatment of his daughter. However, as nothing was done by the authorities concerned, the instant writ petition was filed seeking a direction upon the Respondent Authorities to pay adequate compensation to the infant daughter of the Petitioner by calculating the amount of compensation by an independent agency and/or for appropriate direction to the Respondents to forthwith consider the representation submitted by the Petitioner on 4/3/2013. At this stage, it is relevant to mention that the instant writ petition was filed on 22/1/2014, i.e. almost a decade back and at present, the daughter of the Petitioner is 13 years old.