Kathmandu, July 28: The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Kanti Children’s Hospital in Kathmandu to provide Rs 3 million in compensation to victims in the case relating to medical malpractice.
The full text of the verdict delivered by the double bench of Justice Hari Prasad Phuyal and Tilak Prasad Shrestha on February 8, 2023 was made public today which decided that the victim families be provided the compensation amount.
An 8-month-old infant was admitted to Kanti Children’s Hospital for emergency treatment after he developed respiratory related complications on July 6, 2016.
Infant’s father, Dhruba Kumar, filed a complaint in the Kathmandu District Administration Office, stating that his child’s health was adversely affected after the Hospital’s doctor had mistakenly administered meningitis malari’s vaccine that was prepared for another child.
The full text of the verdict reads, “Based on the evidences, it has been confirmed that the 8-month-old infant Alok Baral’s health has been adversely affected due to medical negligence.”
According to the medical report prepared by Dr Ayushma Regmi on the behalf of the Kathmandu Public District Office, the Court held that the symptoms in the infant following the vaccine administration were due to the side effect of the meningitis malaria.
The infant had difficulty in respiration and symptoms such as leaking of stool and urine were seen in him.
The full text of the verdict further read, “The symptoms seen in the child was similar to the side effect of the meningitis malaria vaccine. It was found that the said symptom coincided with the symptoms of the side effect of the injection montage, thus, due to the hospital’s negligence, an eight-month-old child could die due to the use of an excessive amount of the wrong medicine, and when it was seen that the eight-month-old child had life-long physical and mental effects, it was seen that the hospital had an indirect obligation to pay compensation to the affected child.”
The infant’s father had moved to the High Court and Supreme Court after filing complaint at the District Administration Office stating that the Hospital had been negligent to his child’s health and he had demanded due compensation.
