Fifteen years after it injected HIV-infected blood into a child, making him an AIDS patient for life, a government hospital here in Chennai will get away by paying just Rs 50,000 as compensation. Awarding the meagre compensation, the Madras high court on Thursday asked parents of the boy, now 16, to file a separate suit if they wanted a higher amount.
S Sorna, a daily wager, had moved the Madras high court HC, seeking a compensation of Rs 10 lakh. She said doctors at the Institute of Child Health in Egmore transmitted HIV-infected blood to her son Kumar (name changed) in February 1999 after a surgery. The one-year-old boy had been was admitted to the hospital for treatment of diarrhoea. The boy was treated as an inpatient till March 1999 and then discharged. However, he started falling ill frequently in September 1999 and developed cold and swelling on his neck.
Medical tests revealed that he was HIV-positive. The parents themselves underwent a series of tests, and it was found that they were not infected. Sorna then realized that the government hospital had transfused blood without a prior test. She demanded Rs 10 lakh as compensation for her son's present condition and future treatment.
The hospital, however, denied the allegations saying while the surgery and blood transfusion was done in February, the boy fell ill and tested positive for HIV only in September 1999. Infection might have happened at any other hospital where the boy was treated during this period, it said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/43567054.cms
S Sorna, a daily wager, had moved the Madras high court HC, seeking a compensation of Rs 10 lakh. She said doctors at the Institute of Child Health in Egmore transmitted HIV-infected blood to her son Kumar (name changed) in February 1999 after a surgery. The one-year-old boy had been was admitted to the hospital for treatment of diarrhoea. The boy was treated as an inpatient till March 1999 and then discharged. However, he started falling ill frequently in September 1999 and developed cold and swelling on his neck.
Medical tests revealed that he was HIV-positive. The parents themselves underwent a series of tests, and it was found that they were not infected. Sorna then realized that the government hospital had transfused blood without a prior test. She demanded Rs 10 lakh as compensation for her son's present condition and future treatment.
The hospital, however, denied the allegations saying while the surgery and blood transfusion was done in February, the boy fell ill and tested positive for HIV only in September 1999. Infection might have happened at any other hospital where the boy was treated during this period, it said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/43567054.cms