NAVDEEP SINGH KHAIRA Vs. SHEELA GUPTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is against the order dated 25. 06. 2004 of the Punjab State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh (hereafter, the State Commission) in Complaint Case No. 62 of 2000. By the said order, the State Commission held the appellants (hereafter, the Opposite Parties or OPs) guilty of medical negligence and deficiency in service in treating Raj Karan, the deceased son of respondent no. 1 (Sheela Gupta, hereafter referred to as the complainant ). The State Commission accordingly awarded to the complainant a compensation of Rs. 1 lakh and costs of Rs. 5,000/-, payable by the OPs within one month of receipt of a copy of the order.

(2.) PRACTICALLY, all the material facts of the case are undisputed. Raj Karan was a patient of chronic renal failure (CRF) and he also suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy DCM (a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged, and cannot pump blood efficiently; the decreased heart function can affect the lungs, liver and other body systems ). On consultation with OP 1 at his personal clinic, Raj Karan was advised to undergo maintenance haemodialysis (HD) twice a week regularly, in addition to some medication. He underwent nearly 120 such sessions of HD at the OP 2 hospital where OP 1 was the Professor of Nephrology and Head of the Nephrology Unit. The blood group of Raj Karan was B, Rh-Negative. During previous sessions of HD, he was all along transfused with blood of the same group and Rh type. However, in his scheduled HD on 17. 09. 1999, he was given blood of B group, Rh-Positive. He died of cardiac arrest on 19. 09. 1999.

(3.) THE complainants case before the State Commission was that her son died prematurely because of the negligence on the part of the OPs in transfusing blood of the wrong Rh type during the HD session of 17. 09. 1999. Raj Karans blood group was B, Rh-Negative and all through the previous sessions of HD, at OP 2 hospital, he was given blood transfusion of the same group and Rh type. There was, thus, no reason to transfuse B, Rh-Positive blood during HD on 17. 09. 1999, without checking for cross-matching compatibility. This was what led to his sudden death on 19. 09. 1999.