E-Paper
Kidney patient to get ₹1.43 refund and compensation for faulty stent
Due to poor quality, stent had fragmented into pieces in her body
A Patiala-based hospital has been directed by the state consumer commission to refund ₹1.43 lakh and ₹10,000 as compensation and legal fees for using "inferior" quality stent to flush out pus from the kidneys of a patient.
The court held Columbia Asia Hospital near No 22 Railway Crossing, Patiala, "responsible for deficiency in service and adoption of unfair trade practice," directing it to refund costs of surgery, compensation and legal fees to Anjali Jaiswal of New Mehar Singh Colony, Patiala.
Jaiswal was admitted to the hospital on May 8, 2016 for treatment of pyonephrosis, a condition in which the kidneys get infected and filled with pus.
After undergoing surgery and getting a stent to drain out the pus, Jaiswal was discharged on May 14, 2016. Returning to the hospital on June 14, 2016, for removal of stent, however, she came to know it was of poor quality and had fragmented into pieces in her body.
Even after the pieces were removed with great difficulty, Jaiswal was told that she would have to undergo another surgery to extricate all the fragments.
Dismissing the hospital authorities’ plea that there was nothing on record to show that the stent was of low/inferior quality, the commission held that "the stent was supplied by hospital and it got fragmented (broken into pieces), then the burden is upon hospital to prove the quality of the stent, which it failed (to do).”
In view of this, the commission said that there was negligence and deficiency in service in inserting substandard/low quality stent in the body of the patient.
