Peddapally nursing home doc asked to pay Rs 2.3L for botched-up sterilization operation

Karimnagar: District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Dr. T. Kalpana of Srinivasa Nursing & Maternity Home in Peddapally to pay Rs 2.3 lakh to a patient family for a botched-up tubectomy operation.

Complainant Bakarapu Sampath and his wife were blessed with two daughters. The complainant's wife underwent a tubectomy operation at Dr. T. Kalpana's nursing home.The doctor also issued a sterilization certificate by receiving an amount of Rs.20,000 towards delivery and tubectomy operation from the complainant in November 2009.

In August 2011, the complainant took his wife to PHC Ragineedu for irregular periods. A duty doctor advised her to undergo a pregnancy test. The report came back positive. It proved that the tubectomy operation performed by the doctor had failed. The complainant submitted that he is a poor coolie and his wife has to undergo one more surgery. He said the complainant being a natural guardian is under moral liability to look after and maintain the child until attains adulthood. The complainant was already under a considerable monetary burden. The new child born to the family has created an additional burden.

The doctor said that prior to conducting a tubectomy operation, she had explained to the complainant and his wife about the percentage of failures in family planning operations. She submitted that after obtaining a sterilization certificate from them, the complainant and his wife obtained benefits from the government. The complainant and his wife went into second thought and they revoke the sterilization operation to conceive again to have a male child.

The doctor also submitted that no prevalent method of sterilization guarantees 100% success and authoritative test books on gynecology and empirical researches which have been carried out recognize the failure rate of 0.3% to 7% depending on the technique.

After hearing both the parties, the commission said that the doctor failed to confirm the claims of failure with any documentary evidence."There is no denial of the opposite party for failure of sterilization operation. We feel that the opposite party was negligent while conducting a sterilization operation on the complainant's wife. The citation filed by the opposite party is not proper to consider, and therefore is liable to compensate the complainant for the deficiency committed by her." said the commission.

The commission asked the doctor to pay the complainant Rs two lakh towards compensation, Rs.25,000 towards mental agony, and Rs.5,000 towards costs of the legal proceedings.